Federal regulators have accused Cyberheat Inc. of Tucson and six other companies of hiring others to send illegal e-mails with pornographic messages to attract consumers to adult Internet sites.
At least some of the unsolicited e-mails have gone to children, the Federal Trade Commission says.
The FTC said it directed the Justice Department to file civil lawsuits against Cyberheat and two of the other companies, T.J. Web Productions LLC of Henderson, Nev.; and Impulse Media Group Inc. of Seattle. The lawsuits seek unspecified payment to the government for "every violation" of the federal anti-spam law.
Four of the companies have already agreed to pay close to $1.2 million to settle charges of what the FTC calls "electronic flashing." The government crackdown is one of the most aggressive against pornographic e-mail operations.
Calls to Cyberheat were referred to attorney Rob Apgood of Seattle, who said Ho denies violating the federal CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act).
"My client denies the claim categorically," said Apgood, who represents other adult-entertainment clients, according to an Internet search.
He described Cyberheat as "a professional online marketing company" that operates "affiliate programs" and runs "several search engines."
Apgood identified one Web site -
www.topbucks.com - which he said demonstrates "a zero-tolerance policy for any client who does violate the CAN-SPAM Act." The Web site - copyrighted by Cyberheat - contains a statement to that effect in its terms and conditions.
According to the Web site, "Since 1997, Cyberheat Inc. has owned and operated some of the most reputable adult programs on the Internet. TopBucks Webmaster Programs has a proven track record of reliability, stability and trust in the Internet industry and prides itself on paying over 6,000 active webmasters on time every time."
Soon he will be handing your info out to cover his own ass
The threat of children unwittingly receiving smut in their in-boxes helped drive the U.S. government to impose restrictions on sending commercial e-mails last year.
The FTC said the messages were not prominently marked "sexually explicit," did not include instructions for consumers to block future e-mails and did not include a postal address, all required under federal law.
Consumers complained about receiving the pornographic e-mails and forwarded copies of the troublesome messages to a special e-mail address set up by the FTC -
[email protected] - said Jonathan M. Kraden, an attorney with the agency's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "We received thousands of messages," Kraden said.
The FTC said the seven companies did not send e-mails directly to consumers but operated affiliate programs, paying others to send unwanted messages to drive Internet traffic to adult Web sites. The FTC said that under the CAN-SPAM law, defendants in such cases are liable because they paid others to send e-mails on their behalf.
The FTC said four of the companies agreed to settle cases against them. BangBros.com Inc. of Miami agreed to pay $650,000; MD Media of Bingham Farms, Mich., agreed to pay $238,743; APC Entertainment Inc. of Davie, Fla., will pay $220,000; and Pure Marketing Solutions LLC of Miami and Internet Matrix Technology of New Orleans will together pay $50,000, the FTC said.
karma is a bitch