Microsoft Spam Litigation Case Fact Sheet

The following is a summary of the allegations contained in the six anti-spam lawsuits filed by Microsoft on Dec. 17, 2003.

Defendants: Synergy6 Inc. (New York); Justin Champion, President of Synergy6 Inc. (New York); OptInRealBig.com LLC (Westminster, Colo.); Scott Richter, President of OptInRealBig.com LLC (Westminster, Colo.); Denny Cole (Dallas, Texas); and Delta7 Communications (Plano, Texas, and Bothell, Wash.). King County Superior Court, Case No. 03-2-12559-8 SEA.

Alleged Spam Activity:

The defendants are allegedly responsible for seven illegal spam campaigns, each in violation of New York and Washington state law:

  • The campaigns, which offered “free” items in exchange for personal information and consent to receive future marketing offers, used false sender names, false subject lines, fake server names, inaccurate and misrepresented sender e-mail addresses, or obscured transmission paths.

  • The messages were routed through at least 514 Internet addresses throughout the world, in 35 countries on six continents, including addresses belonging to the Kuwait Ministries of Communication and Finance, several schools in Korea, the Seoul Municipal Boramae Hospital, and the Virginia Community College System.

  • The allegedly falsified sender e-mail addresses used 105 different domains, including hotmail.com, aol.com, earthlink.net and yahoo.com.

Defendants: Jonathan Huang and Ann Le Dangtran doing business as AJ Imports, Enhance Institute and Epar Inc. King County Superior Court, Case No. 03-2-12358-7 SEA.

Alleged spam activity:

Defendants are allegedly responsible for millions of illegal spam messages that advertised penis enlargement products.

  • The spam used false sender names, fake server names, inaccurate and misrepresented sender e-mail addresses, or obscured transmission paths.

  • The falsified sender e-mail addresses and the fake server names abused well-known domain names, including Microsoft’s msn.com domain, aol.com, bellsouth.net, netscape.net and yahoo.com.

  • Some of the transmission paths falsely indicated that the e-mail traveled through computers belonging to the U.S. Department of Defense.

  • The spam was routed, in part, through a compromised IP address in New York.

Defendants: Nutriworx Inc.; Robert McCarter; Jeffrey Katz; and John Does 1–50. King County Superior Court, Case No. 03-2-12354-4 SEA.

Alleged spam activity:

Defendants are allegedly responsible for millions of illegal spam messages that advertised a human growth hormone product.

  • The spam used false sender names, fake server names, inaccurate and misrepresented sender e-mail addresses, or obscured transmission paths.

  • The falsified sender e-mail addresses and fake server names abused well-known domain names, including Microsoft’s hotmail.com, aol.com and yahoo.com.

  • The spam used deceptive subject lines, which were designed to make recipients believe that they had a pre-existing business or personal relationship with the sender, such as “[Recipient], Why?” and “Hey! [Recipient].”

  • The spam was routed, in part, through a compromised IP address in New York.

Defendants: Teslianet Inc. and John Does 1–50. King County Superior Court, Case No. 03-2-12355-2 SEA.

Alleged spam activity:

Defendants are allegedly responsible for millions of illegal spam messages that advertised potentially offensive adult content, such as “real live amateur girls” and “amateur p0rn [sic].”

  • The spam used blank To, From and Subject lines, giving recipients no indication of the potentially offensive adult content.

  • The text of the spam messages contained falsified sender names, inaccurate and misrepresented sender e-mail addresses, or obscured transmission paths.

  • The falsified sender e-mail addresses abused well-known domain names, including Microsoft’s hotmail.com, juno.com and yahoo.com.

  • The spam was routed, in part, through a compromised IP address in New York.

Defendants: Webmed-RX.com; Safemed-RX.com; and John Does 1–50. King County Superior Court, Case No. 03-2-12356-1 SEA.

Alleged spam activity:

Defendants are allegedly responsible for millions of illegal spam messages that solicited online sales of Viagra.

  • The spam used false sender names, fake server names, inaccurate and misrepresented sender e-mail addresses, or obscured transmission paths. The falsified sender e-mail addresses and the fake server names abused well-known domain names, including Microsoft’s msn.com, aol.com, netscape.net and yahoo.com.

  • The spam was routed, in part, through a compromised IP address in New York.

Defendants: Boxplay 5.com and John Does 1–50. King County Superior Court, Case No. 03-2-12357-9 SEA.

Alleged spam activity:

Defendants are allegedly responsible for millions of illegal spam messages that advertised a range of products and services including weight-loss soap, sexual enhancers, and the opportunity to meet Russian women for potential marriage.

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