[Ecommerce] FTC nabs 7 people in anti-spam campaign!

[Manon Ress]

02-12-2002

E-Commerce: FTC Nabs Seven For E-Mail Fraud In Anti-Spam Campaign


Federal regulators on Tuesday announced that they have nabbed seven
people
for sending deceptive commercial e-mails. The sting operation was part
of
the FTC's aggressive, three-pronged initiative to stop fraudulent,
unsolicited commercial e-mail, or spam.

Commission officials reached a settlement in six cases with Paul Boivin
of
Clearwater, Fla.; Chad and Megan Estenson of Warwick, N.D.; Fernando
Pacheco of North Providence, R.I.; Arnold Larsen of Sarasota, Fla.; John
Lutheran of San Diego; and Dario Va of Weston, Fla. The defendants were
accused of sending "chain letter" e-mails to consumers, promising
thousands of dollars in return for $5 investments.

"Chain letters that promise the return of money or something of value
are
illegal, regardless of the medium that is used for their dissemination,"
said Eileen Harrington, the FTC's associate director of marketing
practices.

Responding to consumers' complaints, the FTC sent letters to 1,000
spammers in September 2000, warning them to stop sending chain e-mails
and
to return any money garnered from such communications. In an October
2001
sweep of its Internet "spam" database, FTC officials again tagged the
chain letters sent by individuals who previously had been warned about
the
behavior.

FTC commissioners voted 5-0 to settle the complaints. Under the
settlement, defendants agreed to stop the practice and must return any
money they collected during the scam.

Additionally, the FTC will launch another enforcement round this week by
sending warning letters to 2,000 spammers. If the spammers fail to
comply
with FTC instructions, regulators will take action within the next few
months, Harrington said.

The FTC has joined with state associations of Internet service providers
in Washington and Texas to bolster consumer education of e-mail fraud.
Harrington said the commission is hoping to partner with other state
groups, too.

Although the FTC recently announced an effort to create a national
"do-not-call" list for telemarketing, Harrington said she does not
foresee
a similar move for e-mail but added, "It is something we are certainly
thinking about and talking [about] with many interested parties."

She refused to comment on the need for a federal law to prohibit false
header and subject information in commercial e-mails, and she said there
is uncertainty as to whether such spam qualifies as "deceptive." One
factor in determining deception, she said, is whether a
misrepresentation
is likely to cause economic injury to consumers.

The FTC is asking consumers to continue sending copies of the spam they
receive to the FTC via its Web site. The agency receives nearly 10, 000
such messages per day.

James Love, director of the Consumer Project on Technology, decried the
FTC's weak efforts and noted that a more effective approach to
preventing
spam would be to forge an international agreement on the subject.

by Maureen Sirhal
 
National Journal's Technology Daily