tomfmason Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 A friend of mine pointed out an article where a man is actively filing law suits against spammers. Enraged, he launched a Web site called Danhatesspam.com, quit a career in marketing to go to law school and is making a decent living suing companies who flood his e-mail inboxes with offers of cheap drugs, free sex and unbelievable vacations. "I feel like I'm doing a little bit of good cleaning up the Internet," Balsam said. From San Francisco Superior Court small claims court to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Balsam, based in San Francisco, has filed many lawsuits, including dozens before he graduated law school in 2008, against e-mail marketers he says violate anti-spamming laws. His many victories are mere rain drops in the ocean considering that Cisco Systems Inc. estimates that there are 200 billion spam messages circulating a day, accounting for 90 percent of all e-mail. Still, Balsam settles enough lawsuits and collects enough from judgments to make a living. He has racked up well in excess of $1 million in court judgments and lawsuit settlements with companies accused of sending illegal spam. I was not aware of this but apparently most states in the US have anti-spam laws in place with California being one of the most strict. Basically this guy wades through his spam box looking for US based companies that violate the California anti-spam laws and files a lawsuit against them in small claims court. Apparently the vast majority of these companies settle out of court and from what I gathered from the article above he has made a healthy sum of money from doing so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trq Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 Awesome. I'm not sure such laws exist where I am, it would be interesting though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomfmason Posted December 28, 2010 Author Share Posted December 28, 2010 Awesome. I'm not sure such laws exist where I am, it would be interesting though. apparently Australia also has anti spam laws - http://www.dbcde.gov.au/online_safety_and_security/spam/ I am seriously considering doing this my self as well. The state that I live in has odd laws regarding "adult" emails and from the looks of it they will make it very easy to file a lawsuit against porn spammers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phpfreak Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 Kick some ass!! over 80% of all my e-mail is spam that I delete! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 I don't even really have a problem with spam. I used to get thousands of emails a month that were spam, now I only get about 250 a month, of which the spam filter captures it all. But it is good to see somebody making a living off of taking down those bastards! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maq Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 it is good to see somebody making a living off of taking down those bastards! Sure is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomfmason Posted December 28, 2010 Author Share Posted December 28, 2010 I just got off the phone with my attorney regarding some sexually explicit emails that I have been receiving on a daily basis. I tried to opt out of their emails over 30 days ago and since that I date I have received at least one email a day. The attorney told me that my state allows up to $25k a day damages starting from the first opt out attempt. Needless to say he was very eager to pursue legal action Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 I just got off the phone with my attorney regarding some sexually explicit emails that I have been receiving on a daily basis. I tried to opt out of their emails over 30 days ago and since that I date I have received at least one email a day. The attorney told me that my state allows up to $25k a day damages starting from the first opt out attempt. Needless to say he was very eager to pursue legal action Wow!! That's freakin awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomfmason Posted December 28, 2010 Author Share Posted December 28, 2010 I just called another spammer on her home phone. Needless to say she was very surprised to be hearing from me directly. I may have found my purpose in life.... get rich screwing over spammers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted December 28, 2010 Share Posted December 28, 2010 lol make a bot that scans through your email detecting potentials gogogo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuickOldCar Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 lol make a bot that scans through your email detecting potentials gogogo And also make many email accounts and with different email providers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tibberous Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 Hear that arrayGen? No more spamming... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.