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May 11, 2005

FTC goes easy on broke spammers

The Federal Trade Commission gave a slap on the wrist yesterday to two spam firms that had been sending fraudulent junk emails for auto fuel boosters.

The FTC waived a $300,000 total judgment against Mark C. Ayoub (Diverse Marketing Group) and Floyd and Marcia Tassin (Net Marketing Group) -- apparently because the two companies' coffers were empty.

Last November, the FTC had sued both spam firms for sending fraudulent spams that touted "FuelMAX" and "Super FuelMAX"-- magnetic devices the defendants claimed would boost auto fuel efficiency by 27%.

The FTC said in a press release yesterday that it has settled the lawsuits. In a nutshell, the defendants are prohibited from sending fraudulent spam in the future. But they got off without having to pay the stipulated damages award.

"Based on financial information provided by the defendants, a $292,000 payment by Ayoub and his companies and a $9,000 payment by the Tassin defendants have been suspended. Should the agency find that the financial information was falsified, the full amounts will be immediately due," said the FTC.

Posted by brian at May 11, 2005 10:44 AM