FreeLists / cybercrime-alerts / STATE LAWSUIT SEEKS TO END SPAM EMAILS SENT....

[alerts@xxxxxxxxxxx]

STATE LAWSUIT SEEKS TO END SPAM EMAILS SENT BY NIAGARA FALLS COMPANY

Spitzer Says Company Sent More than 500 Million Unsolicited Messages to 
Consumers

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today filed a lawsuit against a Niagara 
Falls-based "spammer" that sent hundreds of millions of emails to consumers 
whom it falsely claimed had requested the emails.

"Every day New Yorkers are being inundated with unsolicited commercial emails, 
or spam," Spitzer said. "Some of the spam is a vehicle for fraud, some of the 
spam is inherently fraudulent, and much of it constitutes a real annoyance for 
email user. This lawsuit is the next battle in our continuing fight against 
online fraud, and an attempt to help consumers maintain control of their email 
in-boxes."

MonsterHut, Inc., its Chief Executive Officer Todd Pelow and its Chief 
Technical Officer Gary Hartl, are accused of fraudulently advertising and 
representing the company?s email marketing service as "permission based" or 
"opt-in," meaning that every consumer to whom they send commercial email has 
explicitly asked to receive it. In fact, the suit alleges, the company?s email 
lists are only partly "opt-in," and include many consumers who never asked to 
receive email from the company. The suit also alleges that this false 
representation of MonsterHut?s business practices enabled the company to profit 
through the deception its Internet access provider, its own paid advertisers, 
and consumers at large.

The suit alleges that since March 2001, MonsterHut has flooded consumers? email 
in-boxes with more than 500 million commercial emails, advertising a variety of 
goods and services. At the same time, negative consumer response to 
MonsterHut?s spam has been overwhelming. More than 750,000 consumers have 
requested to be removed from MonsterHut?s mailing lists, and tens of thousands 
have complained to MonsterHut?s internet access provider, PaeTec 
Communications, Inc., of Rochester.

Earlier this month, PaeTec cut off MonsterHut from its network, after a New 
York appeals court held that MonsterHut had violated an anti-spamming provision 
in its contract with PaeTec. However, nothing in that decision prevented 
MonsterHut from spamming consumers through another internet service provider.
"We are seeking to prevent MonsterHut from continuing its fraudulent, deceptive 
and illegal practices, not just over PaeTec?s network, but over any ISP in New 
York," Spitzer said.

The Attorney General is seeking a court order to:

Enjoin MonsterHut, Pelow, and Hartl from falsely representing the nature of 
their unsolicited commercial email;


Require MonsterHut, Pelow and Hartl to disclose how it obtained all the 
consumers? email addresses; and


Require MonsterHut, Pelow and Hartl to pay civil penalties and court costs for 
its violations of New York?s consumer protection laws.


This case is being handled by Assistant Attorney General Stephen Kline of 
Attorney General Spitzer's Internet Bureau.



<http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2002/may/may28a_02.html>

--
This was sent to you from http://theMezz.com
To Subscribe/Unsubscribe go to http://techPolice.com
http://www.theMezz.com/cybercrime/archive

* Our Monthly Tech NewsLetter is at http://theMezzenger.com *