IP: Earthlink Says Ya Spam, Ya Pay!

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Earthlink Says Ya Spam, Ya Pay!
(5/29/97; 5:00 p.m. EDT)
By Malcolm Maclachlan , TechWire PASADENA, Calif. -- Earthlink Networks
announced a new policy Thursday: You spam, you pay.
 The Internet service provider issued a "zero tolerance crusade." It has
sent a warning to eight companies that it said have been using Earthlink
computers to send unsolicited commercial E-mails.
 According to Harris Schwartz, information security administrator at
Earthlink, this list includes three companies offering Internet and
financial services: Creative Finance Alternatives; Internet Communications;
and New York Internet Center. The other five companies -- Sexy Girls
Publishing, LCGM, Real Time Entertainment, S. Maddie Productions and
Prosperity Books -- offer pornographic material, Schwartz said.
 Earthlink officials said these companies have targeted Earthlink
subscribers for mass mailings. It also said they spoofed Earthlink, sending
mass E-mails through its servers to make it appear the messages came
through Earthlink. The company has turned off the relaying functions on its
SMTP and POP servers to prevent this.
 Between the two practices, Schartz said, the eight companies have sent
more than 200,000 E-mails through Earthlink in the past six months. This
not only slowed down the company's computers, but also led to 16,673
complaints.
 "We already had a policy that was pretty strict," Schwartz said. "But in
the past few months, we have had a deluge of spam."
 In case any of these companies want to challenge the policy, they might
want to look at the injunction Earthlink won early this month against Cyber
Promotions, a company run by Sanford Wallace, who is known as the king of
spam.
Cyber must stay off of Earthlink computers and cannot mail Earthlink
subscribers. It is also seeking $3 million in damages from Cyber for
employee and equipment and lost business associated with the spamming.
 One of the companies mentioned in the injunction, however, said it was a
victim, too.
 According to Francis Sharrak, owner of the Detroit adult entertainment
company LCGM, his company never spammed Earthlink. Rather, one of the many
companies that advertises with LCGM's Website did it under Earthlink's name.
 "I don't approve of it either," Sharrak said. "I'm looking into seeing
which company it was that did it. But I can't just cut everybody off."
 The situation is not new, Sharrak added. He said his company was recently
spoofed by an advertiser out of Phoenix, who sent so much mail, it shut
down LCGM's Web servers.