Former 'spam King' Must Pay MySpace $6 Million

kluang · 06-19-2008, 06:39 AM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/2008...pcworld/147159

Quote:

A Colorado man has been ordered to pay US$6 million in damages and legal fees for spamming thousands of MySpace.com users.

Scott Richter of Westminster, Colorado, must pay MySpace $4.8 million in damages and $1.2 million in legal fees, a court-appointed arbitrator ruled on Thursday.

Richter, who was once accused of pumping out more than 100 million spam messages per day, had been sued by MySpace in January 2007 in connection with an August 2006 campaign in which MySpace members were hit with unsolicited messages promoting a Web site called Consumerpromotionscenter.com. The messages were sent from phished MySpace accounts, according to the findings of Philip Boesch, the court-appointed arbitrator in the case.

The messages were sent to a MySpace community that was ill-equipped to deal with any security problems. At the time, "MySpace only employed two relatively junior staff employees to deal with these issues," Boesch wrote. The company's security staff has now grown to about 40, he added.

MySpace had been seeking a court ruling in the case, but in August 2007, U.S. District Judge George King of the Central District of California granted Richter's request to assign the matter to arbitration. Terms of the award were made public on Monday.

In a statement, Richter said that he and his company, Media Breakaway, were happy to have this matter behind them, noting that the arbitrator's award was 95 percent less than the amount sought by MySpace.

"We respect the decision of the arbitrator and we're not going to appeal it," said Steven Richter, the president and general counsel of Media Breakaway and father of Scott Richter. "We're going to pay the money he awarded."

This is not the first time a Scott Richter company has had to cough up millions of dollars to fight spam charges. In 2005, his previous company, Optinrealbig.com, paid $7 million to settle similar charges brought by Microsoft.

Scott Richter was removed from anti-spam organization Spamhaus' list of known spammers that same year.

Media Breakaway, which has no other spam cases pending, is doing everything it can to build a compliance team and make sure it is acting within the law, Steven Richter said.

MySpace said the Richter award was the latest in a series of steps it has taken to combat abuse on its Web site. In May, the company was awarded a $230 million antispam judgment against Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines.

"This award reflects MySpace's continued momentum and holistic approach to ridding the site of spammers and phishers," MySpace said in a statement. "We will continue to do our part in cleansing the Internet of this invasive onslaught of spam."

Moral of the story: Tom was the most popular guy on Myspace due to his process of obtaining friends by force. Now Tom is the most popular guy on Myspace, due to his process of sueing spammers, trolls and ogres.

sikfearless0 · 06-19-2008, 01:39 PM

But time they caught the guy that was doing that!

balmung5000 · 06-19-2008, 01:47 PM

seriously who cares
delete teh message
no need to sue him
ugh i hate the legal system

sikfearless0 · 06-19-2008, 02:20 PM

Bal, this guy was stealing passwords and then would post bulletins about porn and shit, like it would be. GO TO THIS SITE -----------, THE CHICKS THERE ARE AMAZING. if you click on the link it would take you to some hentai or hardcore porn website.

balmung5000 · 06-19-2008, 02:26 PM

o ok
then yea thats annoying

hippiematt · 06-19-2008, 02:48 PM

Oh crap that was him lmao I thaught my cousin was hacked by her friend but eh I was wronge, I think I was having a chat with him/her one time c=

saskatu · 06-19-2008, 03:03 PM

I think that guy left 2 or 3 messages to me before. I got stuff like "Check out this really hot chick who wants you" or else something like that, and my younger brother got like a million of those lol.

All i have to say is good for myspace for catching a spammer who was ruining peoples myspace.

NarutoFreak Jr. · 06-25-2008, 08:50 PM

Guys. This is why you don't spam. O.O

Azumi · 06-25-2008, 09:04 PM

lol havent he heard of "karma"?.... C'est Dommage!

06-19-2008, 01:39 PM	#2
sikfearless0 FALLEN HERO Join Date: May 2007 Location: nowhere.... Age: 21 Posts: 961 Thanks: 5 Thanked 4 Times in 3 Posts	Re: Former 'spam King' Must Pay MySpace $6 Million But time they caught the guy that was doing that! __________________ Life Is To Short To Hold Grudges ^Thanks NarutoFreak Jr. for making me an awesome sig Proud Member of NaruHina FC Proud Member of Uzumaki Naruto FC Proud Member Of TroubleMakers FC Proud Member Of The Official Leaf Shinobi FC I'm Gonna Be Higher Then God!-BlackStar

06-19-2008, 01:47 PM	#3
balmung5000 cpas Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2,123 Thanks: 0 Thanked 4,878 Times in 1,982 Posts	Re: Former 'spam King' Must Pay MySpace $6 Million seriously who cares delete teh message no need to sue him ugh i hate the legal system

06-19-2008, 02:20 PM	#4
sikfearless0 FALLEN HERO Join Date: May 2007 Location: nowhere.... Age: 21 Posts: 961 Thanks: 5 Thanked 4 Times in 3 Posts	Re: Former 'spam King' Must Pay MySpace $6 Million Bal, this guy was stealing passwords and then would post bulletins about porn and shit, like it would be. GO TO THIS SITE -----------, THE CHICKS THERE ARE AMAZING. if you click on the link it would take you to some hentai or hardcore porn website. __________________ Life Is To Short To Hold Grudges ^Thanks NarutoFreak Jr. for making me an awesome sig Proud Member of NaruHina FC Proud Member of Uzumaki Naruto FC Proud Member Of TroubleMakers FC Proud Member Of The Official Leaf Shinobi FC I'm Gonna Be Higher Then God!-BlackStar

06-19-2008, 02:26 PM	#5
balmung5000 cpas Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2,123 Thanks: 0 Thanked 4,878 Times in 1,982 Posts	Re: Former 'spam King' Must Pay MySpace $6 Million o ok then yea thats annoying

06-19-2008, 02:48 PM	#6
hippiematt Chuunin Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: ipod Age: 21 Posts: 721 Thanks: 0 Thanked 5 Times in 5 Posts	Re: Former 'spam King' Must Pay MySpace $6 Million Oh crap that was him lmao I thaught my cousin was hacked by her friend but eh I was wronge, I think I was having a chat with him/her one time c= __________________ I will put my code up in a while. Brawl Mario Cart

06-19-2008, 03:03 PM	#7
saskatu Blitzkrieg Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Destroying your fun! Posts: 496 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Former 'spam King' Must Pay MySpace $6 Million I think that guy left 2 or 3 messages to me before. I got stuff like "Check out this really hot chick who wants you" or else something like that, and my younger brother got like a million of those lol. All i have to say is good for myspace for catching a spammer who was ruining peoples myspace. __________________

06-25-2008, 08:50 PM	#8
NarutoFreak Jr. Chuunin Join Date: May 2007 Location: Photoshoppin for shoes Age: 17 Posts: 528 Thanks: 2 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Former 'spam King' Must Pay MySpace $6 Million Guys. This is why you don't spam. O.O __________________

06-25-2008, 09:04 PM	#9
Azumi 유아쿨입유캔리드디스 Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: In the land of rubbershoes and dirty ice cream... ;o) Posts: 3,703 Thanks: 730 Thanked 356 Times in 273 Posts	Re: Former 'spam King' Must Pay MySpace $6 Million lol havent he heard of "karma"?.... C'est Dommage! __________________ I LOL'D. 삳 압. 유 아 이스투피드.

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode