Spammers told to pay $1.3bn damages
 

Is this old news? Not sure.

A US federal judge has awarded an internet service provider more than $US1 billion ($1.3 billion) in what is believed to be the largest judgement ever against spammers.

Robert Kramer, whose company provides email services for about 5000 subscribers in eastern Iowa, filed suit against 300 spammers after his inbound mail servers received up to 10 million spam emails a day in 2000, according to court documents.

US District judge Charles Wolle filed default judgements on Friday against three of the defendants under the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act (Rico) and the Iowa Ongoing Criminal Conduct Act.

AMP Dollar Savings of Arizona was ordered to pay $US720 million and Cash Link Systems of Florida was ordered to pay $US360 million.

The third company, Florida-based TEI Marketing Group, was ordered to pay $US140,000.

"It's definitely a victory for all of us that open up our email and find lewd and malicious and fraudulent email in our boxes every day," MrKramer said after the ruling.

Mr Kramer's lawyer, Kelly Wallace, said he was unlikely to ever collect the money. The huge amount was the result of an Iowa law that allows plaintiffs to claim damages of $US10 per spam message. The judgements were then tripled under the Rico act.

"We hope to recover at least his costs," Mr Wallace said.

There were no telephone listings for the three companies in Arizona and Florida. Nobody replied to an email sent to Cash Link Systems.

According to court documents, no lawyers for the defendants were present during the trial in November. The lawsuit continues against other named defendants.

Laura Atkins, president of SpamCon Foundation, an anti-spamming organisation, said she believed it was the largest judgement ever in an anti-spam suit.

http://afr.com/articles/2004/12/19/1103391635816.html

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