California, Feds Slam Spammer Who Used Affiliates   - 3,017 Views, 2 Comments

Previous Article « Reach Out and Track Someone - Sprint Offers the “Family Locator” Service
Read Next Article » Verizon Blocking Email: Couldn’t Get Email to Verizon? Couldn’t Receive Email at Verizon? Here’s Why!

  Follow Anne on Twitter     Friend Anne on Facebook

We’ve been telling you ever since CAN-SPAM passed that the most overlooked and undersung aspect of CAN-SPAM was the McCain Amendment, which puts vendors whose goods are advertised in spam firmly on the hook even if an affiliate sent the spam. We are inordinately proud of that amendment, because, hey, we helped author it. But also because we knew that it had lots of teeth. But nobody has heard about it - despite the sharpness of those teeth, it’s been completely overlooked by the press and a majority of the industry.

But let me tell you who has heard of it: Optin Global, Inc., Vision Media Limited Corp., Qing Kuang “Rickâ€? Yang, and Peonie Pui Ting Chen. That’s who.

You may know them better as the folks who stuffed millions of pieces of mortgage spam into your collective mailboxes, much of it through their affiliates, who would get a kickback whenever someone clicked through the spam looking for a cheap mortgage.

In announcing the settlement of the lawsuit this week, the FTC explained that “The settlement requires that the defendants establish an aggressive monitoring regime for any future affiliate program to assure that their affiliates are complying with the provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act and California law. In addition to reviewing, in advance, the subject line, text, and other particulars of the affiliates proposed campaign, the defendants are required to establish an opt-out mechanism for any e-mail campaign conducted on their behalf and requires that they ensure that all opt-out requests are honored.”

So remember, spammers - you can run, but you can’t hide behind affiliates any more.

California, Feds Slam Spammer Who Used Affiliates

 Follow Anne on Twitter

 Twitter Explained in Plain English

 Friend Anne on Facebook

Previous Article « Reach Out and Track Someone - Sprint Offers the “Family Locator” Service
Read Next Article » Verizon Blocking Email: Couldn’t Get Email to Verizon? Couldn’t Receive Email at Verizon? Here’s Why!

Read more:

»  Politics of Spam Makes Strange Bedfellows: The DMA, “Slam Spam”, and the U.S. Justice Department

»  Justice Department Takes “Slam Spam” Literally and Puts it to Dozens of Spammers

»  California Governor Schwarzenegger Vetoes California Affiliate Program Tax, Overstock Reinstates California Affiliates

»  War Driver Gets Whacked by CAN-SPAM

For additional similar stories check out our archives on Internet Law, Spam

NOTE: We never, ever, ever will recommend any product or service on this site that we have not regularly used ourselves and do not wholeheartedly believe in. That said, in some cases after being very pleased with a product or service, we may enter into a relationship with the provider of that product or service such that if someone purchases that product or service based on our recommendation, we may get a small payment. Such payments go towards the upkeep of the Internet Patrol.