If you want to call it that, the good news is that pressure from regulators, lawsuits, and California's attorney general means Fax.com may shut down shortly enough. That doesn't mean they're out of commission entirely, though – the company plans to pick itself up, dust itself off, and start all over again under a different name.
Wired reported September 15 that the company won't stop the flood of spam fax just because the Fax.com name stops. Citing documents made available to the magazine's Web news staff, Wired said the company plans to change names and locations, and get right back into business, most likely as Impact Marketing.
The magazine said a Fax.com worker offered to settle with the Electronic Privacy Information Center – whose deputy counsel filed a suit against Fax.com – for $100 if the counsel, Chris Hoofnagle, dropped the suit. The worker apparently indicated to the group that Fax.com was going out of business.
But if they're planning to just decommission, regroup, and open up shop again, that could be taken as pretty rash for a company who's been bombarded with a $5 million forfeiture order from the Federal Communications Commission; a California state lawsuit looking to recover $15 million in damages and penalties; and, a move by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office to revoke Fax.com vice president Charles Martin's private investigator's license, on grounds, Wired said, that he made numerous false representations in cases involving Fax.com clients.
And then, there's the little matter of a $2.2 trillion lawsuit against Fax.com filed by Infoseek founder Steve Kirsch, who wants the suit to get class-action status and is seeking an injunction to stop Fax.com – under any name – from continuing to send out the spam faxes.
Wired said some of the makeover tasks suggested in documents it acquired included apparent plans to destroy e-mail files and other documents – which "could have been violating the order" of a federal judge in the Kirsch suit, who ordered Fax.com during the summer to preserve all records. Wired cited a source suggesting documents were destroyed late last month, after that order.
At least one company official contacted by the magazine denied ever having worked for Fax.com, while another Impact Marketing telephone number turned up a worker saying vice president Thomas Roth was out of the office but messages were not returned.
The 1991 Telephone Consumers' Protection Act bans junk faxing without the recipient's prior consent. At that time, California reported junk faxes cost that state's consumers about $17 million a year.
Two of the highest profile junk fax defendants in recent years have been the Hooters restaurant chain and 21st Century Fax. Hooters was hit with a $12 million class action judgment by a federal court and the FCC fined 21st Century $1 million, both decisions in
