$1 Billion Anti-SPAM Lawsuit Filed

A Utah-based anti-spam company has filed a $1 billion lawsuit on behalf of 20,000 Internet users with the goal of ferreting out individuals who "harvest" email addresses for spammers.

The company, Utah-based Unspam Technologies, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Virginia Thursday under Virginia anti-spam law and the federal CAN-SPAM Act. Unspam consults with private companies and government agencies on spam control tactics. It filed the lawsuit on behalf of its customers in 100 countries under the name "Project Honey Pot."

Here's why. Unspam and its customers have been using a clever method of tracking email harvesters and their spammer customers. Unspam provides its customers with a software tool that sets up Web pages, called Honey Pots, which make fake email addresses available to the automated email gathering programs used by the harvesters. Those email addresses are later used (like marked bills) by investigators to track both the harvesters and the spammers who use the addresses.

This has been going on for some time now, and the project has already collected a good deal of data. Honey Pot now believes it has enough data to start the legal process, hence its action today. The group will also ask the court for permission to subpoena records from the ISPs used by suspected harvesters and spammers.

Identifying the offenders might be the easy part. Actually prosecuting them has proven a tough job in the past. The main reason is that many of spammers operate from overseas beyond the reach of U.S. laws. But Unspam believes that a large number of harvesters operate in the U.S., many of them in Virginia. Unspam believes the lawsuit is the first to directly target the email harvesters.

The $1 billion in damages Unspam/Honey Pot is asking for would be the largest fine levied for spam violations so far by a U.S. court. What if they win? Who gets the $1 billion? From the group's Web site:

"Obviously a large chunk would go to paying legal fees. Intriguingly, though, since we will know what Project Honey Pot members provided the data that ends up winning the case, maybe we'll be able to send them a little bonus. :-)"

I wish Unspam and its customers luck. Spam now accounts for as much as 80 percent of total email traffic traveling over the Internet. Even if the Project Honey Pot suit manages to shut down just a few email harvesters and their spammer friends, it could be enough to raise some public ire against these parasites.

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