Posted by Virus Bulletin on Jul 1, 2007
Spammer turns court order into money-making opportunity.
Wily email marketer/spammer (depending on your viewpoint) David Linhardt, famed for suing UK spam-fighting organization Spamhaus, has attempted to turn the court order he was awarded against the organization into a money-making opportunity, according to spam-watchers.
In September 2006 an Illinois court forbade Spamhaus from listing Linhardt's company, e360 Insight, and any of its affiliates as spammers. Now, Linhardt is offering a service to companies blacklisted on the Spamhaus Block List, in which he will attempt to get them removed from the list by claiming they are affiliates of e360.
The first customer appears to have been online marketing firm Virtumundo. In a letter to Spamhaus last month, e360's lawyer advised that 'effective immediately, Virtumundo is a customer of and doing business with e360'. The letter went on to demand that Spamhaus remove a blocklisting in accordance with the injunction. Spamhaus has refused to lift the blocklisting, stating that, as far as it is concerned, 'customers who form nothing more than a contractual relationship with e360 after the Court's injunction order was entered are not within the scope of that order'.
Linhardt has been using sponsored Google links to advertise his services.
Posted on 01 July 2007 by Virus Bulletin
