[anti-spam-wg@localhost] AOL raffles off a spammers siezed porsche..
- Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 12:12:40 +0200 (CEST)
a novel approach to hitting spammers where it hurts...
-mally
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3581435.stm
Spammer's Porsche up for grabs
AOL says the Porsche has "symbolic value"
Internet giant AOL has ratcheted up the war against unsolicited e-mail
with a publicity-grabbing coup - an online raffle of a spammer's seized
Porsche.
AOL won the car - a $47,000 Boxster S - as part of a court settlement
against an unnamed e-mailer last year.
"We'll take cars, houses, boats - whatever we can find and get a hold of,"
said AOL's Randall Boe.
According to Mr Boe, the Porsche's previous owner made more than $1m by
sending junk e-mail.
Hitting them where it hurts
AOL is one of the noisiest opponents of the evasive spam trade, and this
month joined forces with Microsoft, Yahoo and Earthlink to sue hundreds of
spammers.
Seizure of property is becoming a major tactic in these lawsuits, since
guilty spammers often protest their inability to pay large fines.
The Porsche-owning spammer, whose identity remains confidential, was one
of a group sued last year for having sent 1 billion junk messages to AOL
members, pitching pornography, college degrees, cable TV descramblers and
other products.
Mr Boe said the Porsche was seized mainly for its symbolic value, as the
obvious fruit of an illegal trade.
The Porsche sweepstake lasts until 8 April, and will be open only to those
who were AOL members when it was first announced.
