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| The spammers have been ordered to pay over $1
billion. |
A federal judge in the United States has awarded an internet
service provider over $1 billion in what is said to be the largest
ever judgement against spammers.
Robert Kramer, the owner of CIS Internet Services based in
Clinton, Iowa, filed 300 John Doe suits against spammers in 2003.
In court documents he claimed that the ISP's email servers received
up to 10 million incoming spam emails a day during 2000.
US District Judge Charles R Wolle has filed default judgements
against three defendants who failed to attend a defence hearing in
November. AMP Dollar Savings of Mesa, Arizona, was ordered to pay
$720 million and Cash Link Systems of Miami, Florida, has been
ordered to pay $360 million. Another Florida-based company, TEI
Marketing Group, was ordered to pay $140,000.
"While spammers are making themselves a tidy profit, they're
capable of hitting legitimate businesses like this ISP hard," said
Graham Cluley,
senior technology consultant for Sophos. "A forceful message has
been sent out to spammers by this judgement that their behaviour
will not be tolerated - and the penalties for breaking the law can
be severe."
The size of the judgement was made possible by an Iowa law that
allows victims of spam to claim damages of $10 per spam email.
However, although Kramer's lawyers are hopeful that he will be able
to recoup his legal costs it seems unlikely that he will
successfully claim back the damages.
The lawsuit against other defendants will continue.
Sophos recommends companies protect themselves with a consolidated solution which can defend businesses
from the threats of both spam and viruses.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.