Quote :

"FTC targets porn e-mail operators Wednesday, July 20, 2005; Posted: 4:15 p.m. EDT (20:15 GMT) story.internet.porn.email.jpg Refinance Rates Hit Record Lows Get $150,000 loan for $720 per month. Refinance while rates are low. http://www.lowermybills.com Save on All Your Calls with Vonage When looking for local regional and long distance calling, use Vonage to make... http://www.vonage.com MyCashNow - $100 - $1,500 Overnight Payday Loan Cash goes in your account overnight. Very low fees. Fast decisions.... http://www.mycashnow.com Comcast High-Speed Internet Order today for a $19.99/mo. special, free modem, plus get $75 cash back when... http://www.comcastservice.com YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Regulatory Policy and Organizations or Create Your Own Manage Alerts | What Is This? WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators accused seven companies Wednesday of hiring others to send illegal e-mails with pornographic messages to tempt consumers to visit adult Internet sites. The government said four of the firms already agreed to pay nearly $1.2 million to settle the charges, making it among the most aggressive government crackdowns on pornographic e-mail operations. The Federal Trade Commission described the practice as "electronic flashing" and said at least some of the unwanted e-mails were sent to children. The threat of children unwittingly receiving smut in their inboxes helped drive the U.S. government to impose restrictions on sending commercial e-mails last year. The FTC said the messages were not prominently marked "sexually explicit," did not include instructions for consumers to block future e-mails and did not include a postal address, all required under federal law. Consumers complained about receiving the pornographic e-mails and forwarded copies of the troublesome messages to a special e-mail address set up by the FTC (spam(at)uce.gov), said Jonathan M. Kraden, an attorney with the agency's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "We received thousands of messages," Kraden said. The FTC said the seven companies did not send e-mails directly to consumers but operated affiliate programs, paying others to send unwanted messages to drive Internet traffic to adult Web sites. The FTC said under the "Can Spam" law, defendants in such cases are liable because they paid others to send e-mails on their behalf. The FTC said it directed the Justice Department to file civil lawsuits against three of the companies: T.J. Web Productions LLC of Henderson, Nevada; Cyberheat Inc. of Tucson, Arizona; and Impulse Media Group Inc. of Seattle. The lawsuits seek unspecified payment to the government for "every violation" of the federal anti-spam law. The FTC said four of the companies agreed to settle cases against them. BangBros.com Inc. of Miami agreed to pay $650,000; MD Media of Bingham Farms, Michigan, agreed to pay $238,743; APC Entertainment Inc. of Davie, Florida, will pay $220,000; and Pure Marketing Solutions LLC of Miami and Internet Matrix Technology of New Orleans will together pay $50,000, the FTC said. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/07/20/porn.emails.ap/
bout damn time

8/8/2005 3:13:51 PM

this needed to happen ten years ago.

8/8/2005 3:29:36 PM