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

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September 23, 2005

Latest on Spamford's spyware case

A while back, we wondered aloud about the whereabouts of Sanford "Spamford" Wallace. The former megaspammer, who's profiled in Spam Kings, is facing an October 2004 lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission over illegally spreading spyware.sanford-opm.jpg

As we suspected, Sanford is currently working as a disk jockey at the OPM Nightclub in Las Vegas (warning: annoying ShockWave site).

Meanwhile, the FTC is getting frustrated. In late July, the agency complained to the court about the "lack of cooperation" from Wallace and his company, SmartBot.net, Inc.

FTC lawyers told the court, "Throughout the entire litigation, defendants have engaged in stalling tactics to frustrate discovery and progress in the case. In fact, to this day, defendants have not produced a single document in response to discovery requests that the FTC served nearly five months ago."

The FTC also disclosed that Wallace has refused to discuss settling the litigation.

Sanford's trial had originally been scheduled for November 1, but due to Sanford's foot-dragging, earlier this month the judge postponed it until March 21, 2006.

Posted by brian at September 23, 2005 2:29 PM

Comments

Good research Brian. But maybe you can report all of the facts. For example, the FTC has settled the case with Seismic Entertainment Productions Inc, the company I had operated during the time at which the FTC filed the civil lawsuit. Further, the FTC took action against other entities who actually engaged in the activities the FTC allege. I have been out of the SPAM business since 1997 and I am now involved in the nightclub industry, which is not controversial in any way as far as I can tell. This whole FTC lawsuit was a big publicity stunt by the government and I refuse to play into the poster boy role while actual spyware purveyors are currently operating without any action being taken against them.

Posted by: Sanford Wallace at September 26, 2005 4:24 PM

Also, wondering if you received permission to reproduce that image on your site?

Posted by: Sanford Wallace at September 26, 2005 4:30 PM

Spamfraud, if that really is you - I have two things to say: I'm glad you changed your ways, but at the same time, there's a reason that you've earned name s such as Spamford, Spamfraud, Spamform Wideass, etc. A little hint... default homepage network. Ring any bells? By the way - You do know that spam wasn't the only thing you were doing, right? You caused serious damage to many computers, too. I'll go out on a limb here and bet that one or two users might have reformatted their harddrives cause of you. By the way, you do realize that the FTC has busted more people than you and your spammer friends, right? They've went after the product you advertised in your spam pals, right? Search for "FTC" on this page - http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

Posted by: Nemesis6 at September 29, 2005 12:30 PM

 

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