Early Saturday morning, the Department of Justice made good its threat to file a motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit brought by EFF against ATT over its collaboration with the NSA’s massive program to wiretap and data-mine Americans’ communications.
Read More… (From Spam Daily News - Top Stories)

Today’s global economy is based on technologies that were inconceivable a generation ago. via United States Department of Justice
Read More… (From Email Spam News)

FTC Announces Crackdown on Spammers.

FTC Release: Federal, State, and Local Law Enforcers Tackle Deceptive Spam and Internet Scams

CNET: FTC takes aim at spam, Net fraud - Tech News - CNET.com

A coalition of government regulators led by the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday announced a crackdown on online spammers and scammers.

With the sleazy, squirley nature of most spammers, I don’t know how well this new initiative will be enforced. I do welcome it though. But until it makes any serious headway, I’ll continue to use my own user level spam blocking tools. (Related: Fight back with anti-advertising software)

UPDATE: Boston Globe: State to Target Internet Spam

Citing the results of a joint federal-state investigation, Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly Wednesday said he will seek a new anti-spam law to help him crack down on unsolicited Internet e-mails.

[marketingfix]
Read More… (From John Lawlor: Spam)

Canned by CAN-SPAM

Two men who ran a spam operation to promote pornographic websites had the book thrown at them today. A federal jury in Phoenix, Arizona convicted Jeffrey Kilbride, 41, of Venice, California and James Schaffer, 41 of Paradise Valley, Arizona of eight counts, including conspiracy, fraud, money laundering, and transportation of obscene materials.
Read More… (From The Register - Security: Spam)

Spammer Adam Vitale has pleaded guilty to multiple counts of violating the CAN-SPAM Act and may face up to 11 years in prison.
Read More… (From Spam News)

Three years ago, around the end of April 2003, I started getting hammered with annoying spams from a mysterious company called Amazing Internet Products, which was advertising human growth hormone, government grants, and penis pills. Those hundreds of spams led…
Read More… (From Spam Kings Blog)

Attorneys Bruce Afran and Carl Mayer claim the carrier violated privacy laws by turning over phone records to the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) for a secret government surveillance program.
Read More… (From Spam Daily News - Top Stories)

An article at Government Technology comments on the recent rise of Mother’s Day spam, referring to spammers trying to sell flowers, chocolates, and even baskets of fruit. They don’t say who they have in mind, but from the list of products I’m guessing that they’ve been seeing the same spams that I have (and yes, The Fruit Company, we’re looking at you).
Read More… (From Spamnation)

Spam Solutions Hard to Find. While Washington is currently awash with anti-spam proposals, opening day of FTC’s Spam Forum underscores complexities and diversity of opinions on just what to do. [internetnews.com: Internet Advertising Report]
Read More… (From John Lawlor: Spam)

This has been making the rounds in the blogosphere these past few days: Vonage is taking months/years old addresses, submitted ONLY for a forward-to-a-friend promotion, and sending advertising to those people years later.

If true, it violates all best practice guidelines for appropriate email marketing.

If true, it’s questionably legal.

The worst/best part is that the emails Vonage sent claim to be new referrals, saying “Andy Sernowitz asked us to tell you…” even though Andy Sernowitz apparently hasn’t asked Vonage to do this in many, many months.

Psst, Vonage? Ever heard of Jumpstart? If not, I suspect you will be learning more about that particular FTC action soon enough.

Read More… (From Al Iverson’s Spam Resource)

The United States government filed a Statement of Interest Friday in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF’s) class-action lawsuit against ATT, announcing that the government would assert the military and state secrets privilege and intervene to seek dismissal of the case.
Read More… (From Spam Daily News - Top Stories)

Canned by CAN-SPAMTwo men who ran a spam operation to promote pornographic websites had the book thrown at them today. A federal jury in Phoenix, Arizona convicted Jeffrey Kilbride, 41, of Venice, California and James Schaffer, 41 of Paradise Valley, Arizona of eight counts, including conspiracy, fraud, money laundering, and transportation of obscene materials.Original post […]
Read More… (From The War on Spam)

Canned by CAN-SPAM

Two men who ran a spam operation to promote pornographic websites had the book thrown at them today. A federal jury in Phoenix, Arizona convicted Jeffrey Kilbride, 41, of Venice, California and James Schaffer, 41 of Paradise Valley, Arizona of eight counts, including conspiracy, fraud, money laundering, and transportation of obscene materials.
Read More… (From The Register - Security: Spam)

This has been making the rounds in the blogosphere these past few days: Vonage is taking months/years old addresses, submitted ONLY for a forward-to-a-friend promotion, and sending advertising to those people years later.

If true, it violates all best practice guidelines for appropriate email marketing.

If true, it’s questionably legal.

The worst/best part is that the emails Vonage sent claim to be new referrals, saying “Andy Sernowitz asked us to tell you…” even though Andy Sernowitz apparently hasn’t asked Vonage to do this in many, many months.

Psst, Vonage? Ever heard of Jumpstart? If not, I suspect you will be learning more about that particular FTC action soon enough.

Read More… (From Al Iverson’s Spam Resource)

“This country has a long tradition of open court proceedings, and we’re pleased that as we present our case to the Court of Appeals, the millions of affected AT&T customers will be able to see our arguments and evidence and judge for themselves.”

Consumers, including corporate and banking executives, appear to be targets of a bogus e-mail supposedly sent by the Federal Trade Commission but actually sent by third parties hoping to install spyware on … via Technology News Daily
Read More… (From Email Spam News)

“What he owns is a lot of clothes.”

SEATTLE, June 14 A federal judge in Seattle has denied bail to a man accused of sending millions of illegal “spam” e-mails. Robert Soloway is charged with violating the federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2004 by sending … via Earth Times
Read More… (From Email Spam News)

“You’ve got to do the same types of things with your computers.”

More than 1 million computers _ possibly yours, too _ are used by hackers as remote-controlled robots to crash online systems, accept spam and steal users’ personal information, the FBI said Wednesday. The government has no way to track down all the computers, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, that hackers have massed into centrally controlled collections known as botnets.But the FBI has pulled the plug on several botnet hackers, or zombies. One man was charged this week in a scheme that froze computer systems at Chicago-area hospitals in 2006 and delayed medical services. Read more
Read More… (From Email Spam News)