Diploma Spammers Slammed with Third Degree   12/6/2004 - 1,311 views, 1 Comment

Well, the only degree that brothers Craig and Alton Poe are likely to be encountering in the foreseeable future is the third degree.

The siblings, along with Trinity Southern University and Innovative Cellular and Wireless, have been sued by the Pennsylvania Attorney General for spamming and unfair trade practices under Pennsylvania law.

According to the Pennsylvania Attorney General, Jerry Pappert, “many spam recipients likely opened the e-mail due to a misleading subject line in the header of the message. For example, many of the illegal e-mails contained the words “Virus Alert” in the subject line, and “Internet Virus Department” in the “from” line.

The message instructed consumers to open a link that contained the following statement: “We have detected a possible computer virus on your computer. You must open the details of the report within 24 hours or we will be forced to shut down your Internet service.”

Of course, lots of people ‘earn’ diplomas without attending class, but it’s usually not quite so blatant.

You can read more about this at BizJournals.com.