Fighting malware and spam

'Spam King' agrees to hold fire

For the time being at least...

Prolific spammer Sanford Wallace has agreed to put a hold on his activity until his court case with the FTC has been resolved.

Wallace, whose past activities have earned him the titles 'Spam King' and 'Spamford Wallace', has agreed that he and his companies Seismic Entertainment Productions Inc. and SmartBot.net Inc., will send 'online advertising' only to those people who visit the companies' websites.

The FTC is suing Wallace for his spyware activities - the Commission claims that computer users unwittingly download spyware when they encounter certain banner ads on the Internet. A barrage of pop-up messages are then invoked on the user's machine, urging them to buy spyware removal programs called Spy Wiper or Spy Deleter - for a fee of $30.

A lawyer for the FTC said of the agreement reached this week: 'The commission does believe this is great relief for consumers until the matter is ultimately resolved in the courts ... This provides wonderful protection for consumers in the interim.'

A date for the trial has yet to be set.

5 January 2005

Tags: spam   del.icio.us   digg this

Poll

VB100 certification