"Married But Lonely" Webmaster Brian Westby has agreed in federal court to knock it off with his flood of spam in which harmless subject lines tricked thousands into opening porn images or even visiting porn Websites.
Westby agreed to cease and desist April 22, after the Federal Trade Commission sued him over his fake-to-porn spams - with subject lines like "Did you hear the news?" and "Wanna hear a joke" - tricked Web surfers into visiting his Married But Lonely Website. The FTC had suggested at least 46,000 people had complained about Westby's spam tricking them into opening porn images they never wanted to see.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Westby, who once told police he was a "self-employed porn Webmaster," was hit with a restraining order barring him from disguising the origin of his porn e-mails, using fake subject lines, and failing to let e-mail readers unsubscribe so they could stop getting his spam. The FTC said Westby, like only too many spam flooders, disabled the unsubscribe functions from his messages.
However, the Post-Dispatch noted, Westby wasn't barred from running his Website or sending e-mail. "There is no federal statute that prohibits spam,'' FTC attorney Steven Wernikoff told the paper. Stopping the deceptive practices will make a big difference.'' Westby's attorney, Joel R. Dichter, told the paper his client admitted no wrongdoing, but he would comply with the law "by not engaging in any misrepresentation to consumers, which we don't feel has been done in any case."
But Westby will likely be watched closely by authorities in any case. The Post-Dispatch said that, when he was arrested for driving under the influence before he turned 21, he asked police to return his ID, which they refused to do. "When I told him no," said the arresting officer in a report the newspaper cited, "he said he was just going to make a new one on his home computer."
