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January 5, 2006

Who is the $11.2 billion man?

You may have heard the news about the Hialeah, Florida spammer who was ordered to pay $11.2 billion to CIS Internet, a small ISP in Iowa. But it's unlikely you've ever heard of the spammer, James McCalla aka James McNully.

The judgment is the biggest ever against a spammer, yet James Christopher McCalla, 26, isn't even listed on the Spamhaus list of the world's largest spammers.

So who is this mystery spam king? According to court papers, McCalla used the email address webgost79@yahoo.com, which was connected to lots of domains spammed in 2003. He evidently sent 280 million spams to CIS Internet alone, operating as JMC Internet Marketing Inc.

But McCalla's conduct in the case suggests he's nothing but a chicken boner.

McCalla chose to defend himself without an attorney, claiming that he was insolvent. In an April 2004 court filing, McCalla denied any and all allegations of wrongdoing. "These accusations jeopardize my reputation and I intend to file a countersuit with an action for defamation if these complaints against me are not rescinded," said McCalla in the filing.

In February 2005, he wrote a letter to the court accusing Pete Wellborn, one of the plaintiff's attorneys, of "taking advantage of me simply because I do not have an attorney ... Pete asked what assets I owned, and I told him only a 1996 Honda Accord. He laughed and said he would be happy to take that from me."

Another letter, sent in August 2005, accused CIS Internet of "taking advantage of their ability to afford lawyers in order to prey on smaller starting companies and innocent people."

Nonetheless, in November 2005, the judge entered a summary judgment against McCalla, noting that the defendant "has failed to submit any affidavit or other competent summary judgment evidence to support his general resistance and argument against plaintiff’s motion."

No word yet on that defamation counter suit against CIS from McCalla. I tried calling several of the phone numbers on record for him and his (now dissolved) spam business. Two were disconnected and one was a wrong number. According to court records, his last known address is a post office box in Pembroke Pines, Florida.

Posted by brian at January 5, 2006 3:55 PM