America Online Announces New Lawsuit against 'Sunshine State Spammers' Involved in International Spam Conspiracy Ring.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 18, 2004 America Online See AOL. , Inc. -- Company Alleges Florida Defendants Conspired with Thailand-Based Spammers to Send More Than 35 Million Spam Emails Generating High Volumes of Member Complaints -- AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. Ratchets Up Antispam Enforcement Efforts to Hold Spammers Accountable For Illegal Actions America Online, Inc., in an ongoing effort to hold spammers accountable for their illegal and harmful actions, today announced an important legal action targeting several Florida junk emailers who conspired with international spam operators based in Thailand. AOL has filed a civil lawsuit against four named defendants in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division. The Company is alleging violations of the Virginia Computer Crimes Act, the Federal Computer Fraud & Abuse Act, and State of Florida Common Law. Civil penalties being sought include injunctive relief injunctive relief n. a court-ordered act or prohibition against an act or condition which has been requested, and sometimes granted, in a petition to the court for an injunction. ; $1.6 million in statutory damages Statutory damages are pre-established damages for cases where calculating a correct sum is deemed difficult. In intellectual property cases (relating to copyright or trademark, for instance), it is often difficult for plaintiffs to determine the exact volume of infringement. ; possible additional compensatory and punitive damages Monetary compensation awarded to an injured party that goes beyond that which is necessary to compensate the individual for losses and that is intended to punish the wrongdoer. ; and asset forfeiture Asset forfeiture is a term used to describe the confiscation of assets, by the State, which are either (a) the proceeds of crime or (b) the instrumentalities of crime. Instrumentalities of crime are property that was used to facilitate crime, for example cars used to transport . AOL has been involved in an investigation into the practices of the named Defendants for over a year, beginning in January 2003. The essence of the claims are accusations of a conspiracy among the defendants themselves, as well as third parties located overseas, to send tens of millions of junk emails with hypertext links advertising low-mortgage rate offers to AOL members. The more than 35 million spam emails cited by AOL's lawsuit generated approximately 1.5 million complaints from members, and violated AOL's "Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE Ube (  `bā), city (1990 pop. 175,053), Yamaguchi prefecture, SW Honshu, Japan, on the Inland Sea. It has a modern harbor and an important chemical industry. )" policy. The lawsuits' named Defendants include: "Connor-Miller Software, Inc.", Charles Henry For other persons named Charles Henry, see Charles Henry (disambiguation). Charles Henry (1859- ? ) was a French librarian and editor. He was born at Bollwiller, Haut-Rhin, and was educated in Paris, where in 1881 he became assiatant and afterward librarian in the Sorbonne. Miller Jr., Heidi Miller
Heidi Miller (born Santa Monica, California) is an American female bodybuilder who held the title Ms. Natural America in 1981. ; and James Connor. Connor-Miller Software, Inc. is a corporation incorporated under the laws of the State of Florida and is located in Winter Garden, Florida. The Millers are a married couple residing in Winter Garden, Florida, and Mr. Miller is an officer and director of Connor-Miller Software. James Connor is an officer and director of Connor-Miller Software, and resides in Longwood, Florida. "This lawsuit demonstrates AOL's strong and ongoing commitment to the fight against spam," said Randall Boe, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of AOL. "We will pursue spammers, their accomplices, their co-conspirators, and anyone who operates on their behalf - no matter where they live. The bottom line is, if you are spamming AOL members - or helping someone who is - we will find you, and we will stop you." The Company's lawsuit alleges the Defendants conspired to set up and maintain a bank of email servers in an office suite in Ocoee, Florida for the spam ring's use and specially configured the equipment to facilitate spamming. The lawsuit further alleges that Connor wrote code for the bulk email software Bulk email software is software that is used to send email in large quantities. It might be used for legitimate mailings - for email list subscribers - or for spam. Bulk email software might be a web service or a standalone software. program the spammers were using in an attempt to evade AOL's mail filters and avoid detection. The Defendants' co-conspirators living in Thailand include Jonathan Beyer and Joseph Conrad. AOL alleges that Beyer, a U.S. citizen residing in Thailand, headed the conspiracy and, in addition to spamming, also operates a number of adult websites. AOL alleges that Conrad, also a U.S. citizen residing in Thailand, assisted in establishing and operating Beyer's Internet operations. AOL has already taken legal action against Beyer and Conrad in America Online, Inc. v. Jonathan Beyer, et al. (03-474-A), filed in April 2003 and now pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The defendants named in the new Florida lawsuit had been previously named as co-defendants in the original AOL v. Beyer complaint, but the Court dismissed the Connor-Miller defendants in a December 2003 ruling, on grounds they did not have sufficient ties to Virginia to be sued there. According to the global 'Register of Known Spam Operations' ("ROKSO (Register Of Known Spam Operations) A list of spammers that have been removed from at least three ISPs because of their activities. Maintained by the Spamhaus Project funded by the UXN ISP in the U.K. "), maintained by The Spamhaus Project (www.spamhaus.org), three of the Top 10 known worldwide spammers reside in Florida - more than any other U.S. state. AOL has a long and distinguished legal track record of taking action against spammers and their accomplices, filing over 25 complaints against over 100 individuals and corporations alleged to have spammed AOL members since 1997. In December, AOL collaborated with the Virginia Attorney General, state law enforcement, and industry colleagues to announce the first-ever criminal indictments of two spammers from North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. using the new, toughest-in-the-nation Virginia anti-spam statute. AOL has also been at the forefront of an ongoing effort to encourage states to draft and adopt new, tough anti-spam laws based on Virginia's statute; the most recent state to introduce such legislation was Ohio in January. About America Online, Inc. America Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. Based in Dulles, Virginia, America Online is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services. |
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