EarthLink's pursuit lands spammer in can | CNET News.com
Good. Perhaps capital punishment should be next.
EarthLink's pursuit lands spammer in can | CNET News.com:
A Florida man known as the "timeshare spammer" was sentenced to a year in prison on Thursday for clogging in-boxes with millions of unsolicited e-mail messages, in one of the first criminal prosecutions under federal anti-spam laws.
Peter Moshou plead guilty in June to violating the U.S. Can-Spam Act after EarthLink sued him in January. In its suit, EarthLink alleged that Moshou sent millions of junk e-mail messages in 2004 and 2005 offering brokerage services for people interested in selling their timeshares. The suit charged Moshou with numerous Can-Spam violations, including falsifying the "from" field in e-mail addresses, using deceptive subject lines, failing to identify the sender, and failing to provide an electronic unsubscribe option.
In addition to prison time, the court ordered Moshou to pay $120,000 in restitution.
In a separate case, the Internet service provider won a $15.4 million judgment against Florida resident Craig Brockwell and his company, BC Alliance, on Can-Spam charges. According to that suit, Brockwell sent hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mails advertising discounted inkjet printer cartridges. The ruling, issued last month, also prevents Brockwell and his company from illegally spamming any Internet user, regardless of the ISP they use.