2005 saw Scott Richter file bankruptcy to avoid paying fines, Alan Ralsky arrested, and CAN-SPAM evaluated for renovations. AOL gave away gold. Spammer gold.
January 2005
Earthlink wins their CAN-SPAM lawsuit against Damon DeCrescenzo and David Burstyn
Pump & Dump stock spam becomes very popular.
'97 per cent of unsolicited commercial email failed to comply with CAN-SPAM' – MX Logic CTO Scott Chasin, the law 'a miserable failure'
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued final regulations for those who wish to comply with CAN-SPAM.
Sanford Wallace promised to send spam and spyware (only to people who visit his Web sites).
The Federal Trade Commission files first-ever suit under CAN-SPAM 'sexually explicit' provisions against Global Net Solutions, Open Space Enterprises, Southlake Group, WTFRC dba Reflected Networks and Global Net Ventures.
Sunbelt Software began to provide anti-spyware services to anti-spam service Cloudmark.
Texas files a CAN-SPAM lawsuit against Ryan Samuel Pitylak, Mark Stephen Trotter PayPerAction, Leadplex LLC and Leadplex
Jeffrey Lee Parson sentenced to 18 months prison for writing Blaster worm
870,000 mobile spamming cases reported to the Korea Information Security Agency (KISA). The spam affects 95.8 users in Korea.
Verizon blocks email from Europe and Asia due to high levels of spam originating from the regions.
Yahoo & Google work with Six Apart and WordPress to attenuate blog comment spam
Georgia Slam Spam E-Mail Act proposes to make spam a felony. Earthlink likes the idea.
February 2005
Microsoft wins $1,2000,000 judgment against Levon Gillespie.
Spamming software SendSafe begins to use ISP's outbound email servers to send spam.
The Center for Excellence in Service of the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business and Rockbridge Associates says spam costs $21.58 billion in lost productivity, annually.
Former AOL engineer Jason Smathers pleads guilty to stealing information of 30,000,000 AOL users. The man he sold the data to, Sean Dunaway of Las Vegas, was yet to be charged.
Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands and Spain agree to work together to fight spam.
Microsoft and Pfizer file a CAN-SPAM lawsuit against the CanadianPharmacy and E-Pharmacy Direct.
Earthlink files a CAN-SPAM lawsuit against Christina Reese, Angela Nickerson, and YamboCS Inc.
Accused child kidnapper and rapist Ronald Scelson, aka the "Cajun Spammer," 'can't beat Postini filters', hands our business cards.
U.S. Attorney charges Anthony Greco of New York under CAN-SPAM with sending IM spam via MySpace.
The U.K. Office of Fair Trade announced a 48-hour crackdown on spam in partnership with the International Consumer Protection Enforcement Network and signatories to the anti-spam London Action Plan (LAP).
The Hong Kong Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology announced a new anti-spam initiative
The EU's 25 member states and 13 Asian partner countries agreed to boost legal tools to fight spam
March 2005
Jeremy Jaynes' sister, Jessica DeGroot's conviction for spamming over-turned
German mobile telephone operator Debitel fined 2,000,000 kroner for spamming competitor Danish mobile phone company Telmore.
The Japan E-mail Anti-abuse Group created.
Spam and phishing up in latter half of 2004, botnets down – Symantec
Scott Richter's Optinrealbig.com files for bankruptcy
IMDB deploys FairUCE, challenge-response issued to email with SPF failures.
April 2005
Microsoft files CAN-SPAM lawsuit against Scott Filary and Donald Townsend
Carsales.com.au loses first case filed under Australian anti-spam law, fined $6,600 AUS
Australia ends up back on the top 12 list of worldwide spam sources
The Federal Trade Commission's Deborah Platt Majoras thinks spam might be on the decline.
Jeremy Jaynes sentenced to nine years in prison for spamming. He remains free on a bond pending an appeal
The Federal Trade Commission files a CAN-SPAM lawsuit against Optin Global dba Vision Media Limited for spamming mortgage, car warranty and college degree offers.
Andrew Kantor, columnist on the CNN website, thinks spam will die out by itself.
Earthlink begins to require SMPT-AUTH
Spamhaus says U.K. anti-spam laws are useless
ISP Hypertouch files under CAN-SPAM against Kraft Foods Inc. for Gevalia coffee spam.
Hong Kong signs the Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Countering Spam with other Asia-Pacific signatories.
Return Path purchases Bonded Sender from Ironport. The deal comes just 10 months after Return Path's last acquisition, that of email list management provider NetCreations.
May 2005
AOL treats emergency e-mails as spam. No word on fate of Harvard admission emails.
UK ISP Telewest (aka Blueyonder) listed on SPEWS DNSBL for inordinate amounts of zombie computers. Telwest doesn't notice.
Massachusetts, helped by Microsoft, files a CAN-SPAM lawsuit against Leo Kuvayev, 2K Services Ltd., and ECash Pay Ltd. Also charged were Vladislav Khokholkov, Anna Orlova, Pavel Tkachuk, Michelle Marco, Dennis Nartikoev, and Pavel Yashin
Sober.q spams in support of ultra-right German political party
CAUCE gives CAN-SPAM a D- grade
18 months after CAN-SPAM comes into force, the Federal Trade Commission begins public consultation on improving the law.
The Federal Trade Commission and 35 government partners from more than 20 countries launch 'Operation Spam Zombies', suggesting ISPs close port 25, and sandbox zombie infected user computers.
The Federal Trade Commission files a CAN-SPAM lawsuit against Cleverlink Trading, Real World Media, Brian Muir, Jesse Goldberg and Caleb Wolf Wickman.
Developing countries suffer from spam disproportionately, according to the OECD
June 2005
The Canadian Task Force on Spam issues its final report noting the need for anti-spam laws in Canada.
HerbalKing Lance Atkinson and Jody Smith, Inet Ventures, Tango Pay, Click Fusion and TwoBucks Trading charged under CAN-SPAM
DomainKeys Identified Mail, borrowing elements from Yahoo's Domainkeys and Cisco's Internet Identified Mail system announced.
Borobt-Gen trojan announces Michael Jackson suicide.
State media in China announce Hong Kong will crack down on spam
Creaghan A. Harry agrees to turn over 10% of his ill-gotten gains to the Federal Trade Commission via $485,000 fine
Trend Micro buys Kelkea and MAPS. Unofficially known as the day the music is buried.
Hotmail releases its Smart Network Data Services
Wayne Mansfield charged under the Australian anti-spam act. He notes he made a staggering amount of money spamming.
Craig Spiezle, director of Microsoft's technology care and safety team, believes Hotmail should require Sender ID on all inbound email. The Internet disagrees "They will end up isolating and destroying their own mail services".
Joe Wagner & Hypertouch continue to rack up the CAN-SPAM cases, filing against Discover Financial Services, Link It Software, diploma mill Kennedy-Western University and Stamps.com
Peter Moshou pleads guilty to a civil lawsuit filed by Earthlink. An article also notes that Nicholas Tombros was the first criminal conviction under the federal CAN-SPAM law. Moshou faces 3 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Microsoft Sender ID alliance a failure – Washington Post MX Logic says 'spammers the most likely participants in SPF and Sender ID deployment'
AOL, Yahoo! Microsoft and Earthlink discuss DKIM vs. Sender ID. Again.
The Chinese government joins the London Action Plan. Again.
Michigan and Utah Child Protection registry and 'do not email' laws come into effect.
July 2005
Christopher 'The Rizler' Smith arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) for spamming; Burnsville Internet and Xpress Pharmacy Direct shut down.
Blue Security's Blue Frog software released, warns spammers to 'stop it'. if they don't Blue Frog launches a denial of service attack against them.
BangBros.com (fined $650,000), APC Entertainment (fined $220,000), MD Media (fined $238,743) Pure Marketing Solutions and Matrix Technology (fined $50,000) reach settlements with the Federal Trade Commission over their spamming activities
The U.S. Department of Justice indicates it is filing CAN-SPAM suits against TJ Web Productions Cyberheat and Impulse Media
Scott Richter is taken off the ROSKO list
422 new vulnerabilities were discovered in the second quarter of 2005 – SANS
Opt-in New Zealand legislation Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill begins final deliberations in legislature.
The Virginia State anti-phishing law came into force
July 2005
Microsoft and Scott Richter settle their lawsuit for a full settlement of $7,000,000. Microsoft’s senior vice president and general counsel, Brad Smith notes “Because of this litigation, Mr. Richter has fundamentally changed his practices and forfeited ill-gotten gains. Microsoft looks forward to a permanent change in Mr. Richter’s practices.” Mr. Richter was subsequently sued by MySpace for spamming and phishing in 2008.
AOL raffles $20,000 in gold bars, a 2003 Hummer H2 and $75,000 in cash it seized from spammer Brad Bournival. He had purchased the email lists stolen by Jason Smathers, for $28,000. Smathers is sentenced to 15 months in prison. One million people enter the sweepstakes, 53-year-old welder Marc Daniels wins the prizes.
Florida considers criminal provisions for proposed anti-spam law.
Scott Levine and Snipermail.com charged with stealing data from Acxiom. Six employees plead guilty.
Three charged, one pleads guilty in first CAN-SPAM case on 'sexually explicit' tagging. Jennifer Clason, Jeffrey Kilbride and James Schaffer sent spam via The Netherlands.
Vardan Vardanovich Kushnir, a spammer targeting Russians, is found murdered in his Moscow apartment.
September 2005
Verizon Wireless files CAN-SPAM suit against Intelligent Alternatives of San Diego, California, and Resort Marketing Trends of Coral Springs, Florida.
Irish firm 4’s a Fortune becomes first win with Irish anti-spam law, fined 1,500 euro + 1,000 euro court costs. a Fortune is "Irelands first online casino-like cash game".
Spamhaus believes Yahoo! supports online scams.
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and the Attorney-General's Chambers release draft anti-spam legislation for public consultation.
Sender reputation is first mentioned in the popular press.
An Arizona court makes cell-phone spam a crime
October 2005
Mobile networks seen to be vulnerable to denial of service attack by spam
Anti-spyware bills abound in U.S. congress WhenU (a company that surreptitiously install software on user computers) CEO Avi Naider supports a federal law.
Leo Kuvayev's websites ordered shut down, fined $37,000,000 under CAN-SPAM. CAUCE notes 'CAN-SPAM has not had a visible effect on the amount of spam on the Internet'.
U.K. citizen Peter 'Weaselboy' Francis-Macrae arrested for spam, fraud, and threatening to kill police officers
Alan M. Ralsky and Scott Bradley arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for spamming
30% of UK firms found to 'ignore spam laws'
Anthony Greco sentenced for spamming MySpace users via IM. The sentence is under seal.
The Direct Marketing Association requires its members to adopt email authentication (DKIM or Sender ID). Either one. or both. Whatever.
Microsoft identifies 13 different spamming operations using botnets. Microsoft tests an infected zombie PC; it sends 18 million e-mail messages over 5 million different connections. In three weeks.
Dutch botnet herders controlling 1,500,000 computers arrested, not named.
Asia called the 'Spam Factory of the World' by Business Week magazine.
November, 2005
The Zlob trojan is released into the wild
Jared Cosgrave and Mohammed Haque charged with CAN-SPAM violations by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).
Dutch enforcement agency OPTA wins case against unidentified drug spammer, fine set at $97,000 for sending 9,000,000,000 spam eamils.
U.K. Office of Fair Trade warns UK company Dropshippers from selling on lists of 3 million bogus 'opt-in' email addresses to potential spammers on its website. They comply.
Pfizer launches anti-Viagra-spam radio campaign in Holland.
Peter 'Weaselboy' Francis-Macrae jailed for six years in U.K. for spam scams
U.K. residents David Levi and Guy Levi are sentenced to four years and 23 months in prison respectively for phishing eBay
Verizon Wireless files CAN-SPAM suit against Passport Holidays
December 2005
Pump & Dump spam complaints to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission double in 2005
Scott J. Filary and Donald E. Townsend issued an permanent injunction and fined $50,000 for spamming
Scottish government admits their anti-spam laws are weak Sean Connery makes no comment.
New Zealand anti-spam legislation nears adoption
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) claims, but fails to prove, CAN-SPAM effectiveness. Anti-spammers skeptical of any positive claims.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority forces ISPs to attack spam; they must proactively scan traffic for open relays and botnets, networks of compromised PCs used for sending spam. In addition, spam filters must be offered and clearly advertised by each Australian ISP.
White Buffalo Ventures, dba LonghornSingles.com fails in bid to force the University of Texas to allow them to spam their users.
Billy W. Williams charged with spamming under CAN-SPAM.
Florida gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist accused of spamming in support of his campaign. 'It's not spam, its free speech' his campaign manager claims.
China 'cracks down on cell-phone spam' by requiring prepaid cell-phone subscribers to register their devices using their real names.
New Zealand ISP Telstra's Clear service slowed to a crawl due to spam.
