Iowa ISP Gets $11B In E-mail Spam Case

[Wazoo]

Although against copywrite regulations, this is such a bad excuse for "reporting" that there isn't any way to apply any "fair-use" rules to 'extract' anything ..... (and noting that thuis 'article' had even been update ..????)

POSTED: 11:52 am CST January 5, 2006

UPDATED: 12:06 pm CST January 5, 2006

DES MOINES, Iowa -- An Iowa Internet service provider has been awarded $11 billion in a judgment against a Florida man who sent millions of unsolicited e-mail messages.

The e-mail advertised mortgage and debt consolidation services.

In addition to paying Clinton-based CIS Internet Services, the Florida man has been barred from accessing the Internet for three years.

http://www.kcci.com/technology/5864633/detail.html

Here we go .... much better data ....

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Florida...id=01100187P97V

Robert W. Kramer, III, the owner and operator of CIS Internet Services, filed a lawsuit against Miami, Florida-based James McCalla, alleging that over 280 million illegal spam e-mails were sent to CIS e-mail accounts.

The spam e-mails allegedly advertised mortgages, debt-consolidation services, and pornographic and gambling Web sites.

...........

Cluley said that successful convictions like the fine against McCalla help send a clear message to other spammers that spamming will not be tolerated. "For that reason, this sentence should be welcomed," he said.

"However, the unfortunate truth is that spam is a lucrative global business, driven by criminal intent, and well beyond the ability of the lawmakers to control," he noted. "Individuals and corporations who do not take proactive measures to protect themselves from the onslaught are certain to fall victim to the detrimental effects of spam in one form or another."

If no one bought goods sold via spam, the problem of unsolicited commercial e-mail would disappear overnight, Cluley argued.

http://software.silicon.com/security/0,390...39155388,00.htm

In 2004, CIS was awarded more than $1bn from 300 spammers after servers received up to 10 million spam emails in a day, according to court documents.

........

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, commented: "This judgement against a spammer is undoubtedly the biggest we have ever heard of.

"spam is not just a nuisance for individual computer users who find their inboxes clogged up with unwanted mail but for ISPs who are hit in the pocket by having to pay for the bandwidth to deliver and store hundreds of millions of messages."

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll...S/60105002/1001

Kramer’s lawsuit initially named numerous defendants, many of whom were dropped from the lawsuit the last couple years. In 2004, judgments totaling more than $1 billion were issued against Cash Link Systems of Florida, AMP Dollar Savings Inc. of Arizona, and TEI Marketing Group Inc. of Florida.

The lawsuit said the defendants used the ‘‘cis.net’’ domain in the e-mails as part of a false return address to disguise their source and deflect complaints to CIS.

Kramer claimed that under state law he was entitled to $10 per illegal e-mail, and he said Wednesday that he does expect to see the money.

[Wazoo]

Kramer wins another spam judgment; more than $236 million

Robert W. Kramer III, owner and operator of CIS Internet Services, received the $236,480,660 judgment against two individual defendants, Henry Perez and Suzanne Bartok of Arizona, following a trial for violation of Iowa's anti-spam statute. The verdict was entered on Sept. 30 in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Iowa, Davenport Division, by Judge John A. Jarvey.

"The court finds that Kramer has proven by a preponderance of the evidence that the spam e-mails originated with Perez and Bartok. The e-mails, which were unsolicited advertisements, did not identify the point of origin or the transmission path and did not provide a "readily identifiable" e-mail address to which the recipient could send a request for declining further e-mails," the court order states. "As such, the court finds in favor of Kramer and against Perez and Bartok."

The court found that husband and wife Perez and Bartok sent more than 23 million e-mails advertising loan refinancing services to CIS computers in 2003. The judgment is unique in that corporate officers Perez and Bartok were held personally liable and not protected by the limited liability of their corporation.

[Farelf]

Another account - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/08/mo...mmer_judgement/

... spam volumes at CIS have dropped to between 10 million and 15 million, at least in part, Kramer said, because of the legal campaign. That, combined with the cautionary tale the case provides to other would-be spammers, makes it all worthwhile.

That's per DAY (down from half a billion).