May 27 2005
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has lodged a complaint against those allegedly behind the so-called 'lonely housewives' spam. According to the FTC, the 'date lonely wife' email "violates nearly every provision of the CAN-SPAM Act", misleading the recipient with falsified senders and failing to provide a valid opt-out link to stop the spam. The 'date lonely wife' email also contains sexually explicit material without clearly identifying it as such in the email Subject line, a violation of the FTC's Adult Labeling Rule.
In response to the FTC complain, a U.S. District court has ordered the spamming stopped and frozen the assets of those named in the complaint: Cleverlink Trading Limited, Real World Media, LLC, Brian D. Muir, Jesse Goldberg, and Caleb Wolf Wickman.
According to the FTC, collectively these operators controlled more than 180 websites. The FTC alleges the defendends tried to conceal their identities and California location through the use of offshore accounts.
The FTC lodged the complaint just days after announcing the launch of "Operation Spam Zombies", a cooperative effort involving more than 20 countries and 35 government partners. As part of the Operation Spam Zombies campaign, the FTC plans to send letters to various ISPs, encouraging them to block access to certain ports, monitor customer's use, disable Internet access for infected parties and provide tools and support for cleaning.
Details of the 'lonely housewives spam' complaint and Operation Spam Zombies are available on the FTC website.
Update: In September 2006, the FTC reached resolution in this case. For details, see the Stipulated Order For Permanent Injunction and Final Judgment.