Las Vegas man apologizes for e-mail spam campaign

Grace Leong

Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2000 | 10:43 a.m.

Individual Investor Group Inc. of New York dropped its lawsuit against a Las Vegas man after it received a public apology and $5,000 from him for illegally sending unsolicited electronic mail or "spams" containing Individual Investor's trademarks and Internet domain names to promote investment opportunities.

In a settlement last month, Anthony Howard consented to a court order permanently barring him from distributing any more unsolicited e-mails and to help Individual Investor to clear its name and website addresses including www.individualinvestor.com, www.iionline.com and www.investormail.com from various online "spamming" blacklists.

Spamming refers to the act of sending unsolicited e-mail advertisements in bulk over the Internet to any number of users with e-mail addresses.

In what is considered one of the first actions to be commenced under Nevada's Electronic Mail statute, Individual Investor filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Apr. 12, 1999, alleging it was blacklisted for spamming and received numerous complaints from individuals who received Howard's spams and believed the spams originated and are endorsed by Individual Investor.

The suit said Howard included information such as "Invest for Maximum Returns with Individual Investor http://www.iionline.com. Get Your free e-mail account at http://investormail.com," to create the appearance that Individual Investor sponsored the information in his spams.

Individual Investor, which publishes financial investment information such as Individual Investor magazine and other online and print information reaching more than 2 million investors, said it feared investors who relied on its information would be duped by Howard's e-mails into investing in securities it didn't investigate or recommend.

In an Aug. 3, affidavit, Brette Popper, Individual Investor's president and COO said, "Howard's spam advertisement undercuts and dilutes the reliability and accuracy of Individual Investor's proprietary investment advice and financial information... If the investment proves to be bad, Individual Investor will bear the brunt of the investors' wrath."

Judge David Hagen granted an injunction to Individual Investor on Aug. 9, stopping Howard from sending spams and promoting securities using its trademark and domain names. In a second order signed Sep. 15, Hagen granted Individual Investor's application to modify the injunction to include prohibiting Howard from tampering with or destroying computer equipment and other evidence of his "spamming" activity.

In a statement issued this week by Individual Investor, Howard was quoted as saying, "To the extent any activities on my part caused harm to Individual Investor group Inc. I apologize. I understand that members of the Internet community were upset because they thought the 'spam' in question had come from Individual Investor Group Inc. I want to set the record straight that Individual Investor Group Inc. had nothing to do with these emails."

"Even sophisticated 'spammers' leave footprints all over cyberspace," Gregory Barton, Individual Investor Group Inc.'s general counsel said in the statement. "Originally, we had to bring this action against an unnamed 'John Doe' defendant ... By subpoenaing certain Internet Service providers, Individual Investor Group Inc. obtained information that led to the identity of Mr. Howard."

Individual Investor, which owns domain names investormail.com and iionline.com, alleged Howard opened five e-mail accounts with Investormail, the company's free web-based e-mail system and registered for each of them with false information.

The e-mail addresses include 1ven@investormail.com, 1ven2@investormail.com, nhp@investormail.com, dbdy@investormail.com and dbdy2@investormail.com.

The suit said Howard, who was sending spams from March through mid-June 1999, was using StarNet Inc., an Internet service provider headquartered in Palatine, Ill., which maintains a local dial-in telephone number in Las Vegas to access the Internet.