Spammers, take note: MySpace has had it up to here with your wicked ways.
On Monday, MySpace, the social-networking Internet property of News Corp., announced that it had filed a lawsuit against a number of spammers—including self-proclaimed "spam king" Scott Richter—for using the site’s "bulletin" option to post millions of spam messages to users’ accounts.
Claiming that Richter and others used thousands of users’ MySpace profiles to sent spam-based "bulletins" advertising ring tones and polo shirts, among other products, between July and December 2006, the lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, under federal laws including CAN-SPAM Act and California’s anti-spam statute. MySpace claims that Richter obtained a list of "compromised" accounts or "hacked" into the members’ accounts using a fraudulent technique known as "phishing."
The lawsuit seeks an injunction against Richter and others that would permanently bar them from MySpace. Unspecified monetary damages also are being sought.
"We’re committed to protecting our community from phishing and spam," said MySpace’s chief security officer, Hemanshu Nigam, who added, "If it takes filing a federal suit to stop someone who violates the law and damages our members’ experience, then that’s what we’ll do."
This is not the first time Richter has run afoul of spam laws. After fighting with the state of New York, his company settled for $40,000 plus $10,000 in investigate costs. Most notably, he settled with Microsoft to the tune of $7 million, which was, at the time, the largest settlement Microsoft obtained in more than 100 spam-related suits. Richter also had agreed to make "fundamental changes" to his email practices.
