April 9–16, 1998

on media

The End of Spamford?

Two weeks ago, Sanford Wallace (the King of Spam) settled yet another lawsuit brought against his Dresher-based company, Cyber Promotions, by Earthlink Networks Inc., a California-based Internet service provider, for $2 million. In addition, he will be personally liable for $1 million if he, or any company he is associated with, e-mails any unsolicited advertisements to Earthlink customers.

This past Tuesday, Wallace was in Montgomery County District Court arguing another legal matter, but in this case, the stakes were far lower. He was the defendant in a hearing to determine if his companies, S & L Products and LunchCast, violated the Consumer Protection Act of 1991 by sending unsolicited commercial faxes to two local plaintiffs, Sharon McCullough and Matthew Mitchell. The penalty for such infractions is $500 per incident, or $1,500 (treble damages) if the sender willfully and knowingly violated the federal statute.

Wallace, who represented himself, admitted that the junk faxes originated from his companies. But, he asserted, the advertisements were not unsolicited. In October 1997, he testified, an employee of Cyber Promotions received an anonymous telephone call, specifically requesting that two fax numbers (McCullough's and Mitchell's) be added to his list of persons to be contacted regarding products and services by his companies. Wallace even produced a telephone message logbook to support his claim.

McCullough and Mitchell vigorously denied on the stand that they'd ever submitted their fax numbers for commercial solicitations.

They were represented by Wilmington attorney Bruce McCullough, who was slightly surprised by Wallace's defense: "I didn't know he was going to come up with something as creative as a purported phone log which listed both of my clients' fax numbers from an anonymous caller."

As of press time, District Justice Patricia Zaffarano had not made a decision on the case.

On a related matter, Wallace said he is in the process of negotiating a "peace treaty" with anti-spam activists and expects to announce a new model for Internet marketing shortly. His plan would pay Internet service providers to allow Wallace's companies to send e-mail advertising to their customers.

"This is the closest thing to changing my ways that you will ever see," Wallace explained.

In addition, Wallace is expected to announce his support for the Smith bill (a.k.a. HR 1748, the Netizens Protection Act), that would make spam illegal—just like unsolicited junk faxes.

-Deborah Scoblionkov