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Microsoft, Florida attorney general team on spam suits
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Florida has filed five civil lawsuits against two spammers for sending more than 65,000 illegal e-mail messages and running 75 fraudulent Web sites in the last year, according to a statement from the office of State Attorney General Charlie Crist.
Scott Filary, 25, and Donald E. Townsend, 34, are charged with sending thousands of e-mail messages advertising online pharmacies, cigarette sales and illegal movie downloads. The case is the first to test a new state antispam law. If found guilty, they could be forced to pay $24 million in fines.
Microsoft co-operated with the Florida attorney general and collected the illegal e-mail messages through its MSN Hotmail e-mail service. The company then issued a statement praising the lawsuits, saying that actions like those taken by Florida will help end illegal spam.
Filary and Townsend are charged with violating the federal CAN-SPAM Act, Florida’s Electronic Mail Communications Act and the state’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, according to the statement.
Around 30% of the e-mail sent by the pair contained false subject lines, false business contact information or used address spoofing to disguise the message’s origin, the attorney general’s office said. The pair also allegedly registered more than 350 Internet domain names in the 12 months, using the name "J. Scott" and a Fort Lauderdale post office box as a contact.
Those sites were used to run fraudulent businesses, such as online pharmacies that charged customers large, undisclosed "dispensing fees" with each purchase.
The Web sites were often operated for only a few days before they disappeared and then reappeared at a new Web address. Spam drove customers to the spamvertized sites.
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