'Spam King' agrees to hold fire

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Jan 5, 2005

For the time being at least...

Prolific spammer Sanford Wallace has agreed to put a hold on his activity until his court case with the FTC has been resolved.

Wallace, whose past activities have earned him the titles 'Spam King' and 'Spamford Wallace', has agreed that he and his companies Seismic Entertainment Productions Inc. and SmartBot.net Inc., will send 'online advertising' only to those people who visit the companies' websites.

The FTC is suing Wallace for his spyware activities - the Commission claims that computer users unwittingly download spyware when they encounter certain banner ads on the Internet. A barrage of pop-up messages are then invoked on the user's machine, urging them to buy spyware removal programs called Spy Wiper or Spy Deleter - for a fee of $30.

A lawyer for the FTC said of the agreement reached this week: 'The commission does believe this is great relief for consumers until the matter is ultimately resolved in the courts ... This provides wonderful protection for consumers in the interim.'

A date for the trial has yet to be set.

Posted on 5 January 2005 by Virus Bulletin

 Tags

twitter.png
fb.png
linkedin.png
hackernews.png
reddit.png

 

Latest posts:

VBSpam tests to be executed under the AMTSO framework

VB is excited to announce that, starting from the Q3 test, all VBSpam tests of email security products will be executed under the AMTSO framework.

In memoriam: Prof. Ross Anderson

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of Professor Ross Anderson a few days ago.

In memoriam: Dr Alan Solomon

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of industry pioneer Dr Alan Solomon earlier this week.

New paper: Nexus Android banking botnet – compromising C&C panels and dissecting mobile AppInjects

In a new paper, researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Bansal provide details of a security vulnerability in the Nexus Android botnet C&C panel that was exploited in order to gather threat intelligence, and present a model of mobile AppInjects.

New paper: Collector-stealer: a Russian origin credential and information extractor

In a new paper, F5 researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Chaturvedi present a 360 analysis of Collector-stealer, a Russian-origin credential and information extractor.

We have placed cookies on your device in order to improve the functionality of this site, as outlined in our cookies policy. However, you may delete and block all cookies from this site and your use of the site will be unaffected. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to Virus Bulletin's use of data as outlined in our privacy policy.