AOL Tries to Can Spam

AOL files five lawsuits against spammers:

AOL, the nation’s largest Internet service provider, with 27 million subscribers, said the targets of its suits were responsible for sending its members an estimated 1 billion pieces of spam that resulted in more than 8 million complaints. The unsolicited messages contained such things as pornographic images, body-enhancement offers, and diet and financial schemes.

….The barrage of lawsuits reflects a heightened industry, legal and legislative effort to combat spam, which has grown so rapidly that it accounts for nearly 40 percent of e-mail traffic and is estimated to cost U.S. businesses $8 billion to $10 billion a year.

“Clearly, our anti-spam message is made more audible when the volume is turned up,” said AOL spokesman Nicholas J. Graham. For the first time, Graham said, AOL is using member complaints about spammers as the basis for legal action.

The defendants in the lawsuits “are some of the leadership targets in the war against spam,” he said. “They operate the command and control facilities in the ongoing fight to get spam into the inboxes of our members.” [Washington Post]

One of the spammers sued is the notorious George A. Moore, whose own suit against an anti-spam vigilante was thrown out of court last week.