A Weblog About Topics and Issues Discussed in the Book Spam Kings by Brian McWilliams

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April 13, 2005

"Rick Yang" sued by FTC and California

optin-global.jpgThe State of California and the FTC have teamed up to sue some California-based mortgage spammers.

The FTC said citizens forwarded 1.8 million spams that had originated from the defendants, Optin Global, Inc. (More evidence that the FTC reads its email after all!) The company is accused of massive CAN-SPAM violations.

Spamhaus lists "Calvin Ho" as the head of Optin Global, but that may have been an alias. The FTC complaint says Rick Yang is the owner and Peonie Pui Ting Chen serves as president.

Rick Yang?! That's the programmer who allegedly ripped off spam king Scott Richter a couple years ago!

Yang apparently was an expert in doctoring lists of email addresses so that they looked like the individuals had opted in to receive spam. His software would retroactively add IP addresses, date stamps, and other "proof" that the opt-in was legit.

Yang also apparently used the alias "gonka" and wasn't always prompt about paying his affiliates, according to this posting at SpamForum.biz.

Posted by brian at April 13, 2005 1:37 PM

 

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