Amazon sues 11 online marketers for e-mail forgery
If imitation is the highest form of flattery, Amazon.com Inc. knows the drill all too well – but isn’t acting flattered. Amazon filed federal lawsuits today and yesterday in a move to restrain 11 online marketers from using e-mail messages falsely labeled as coming from Amazon.com. Although it has reached a settlement with one e-retailer, its lawsuits seek millions of dollars in punitive damages to deter other "spoofers" from using its name. Amazon notes that the dollar amount of punitive damages would be determined at trial, when it expects to learn more details on the extent of forgery committed.
"Spoofers lie about who`s really sending these e-mails," said David Zapolsky, Amazon.com vice president and associate general counsel. "Spoofing is forgery, and we`re going after spoofers to the full extent of the law."
Amazon has reached a settlement in principle with one of the online marketers, appliance and electronics retailer CyeBye.com, the online unit of Brooklyn, NY-based E.B.A. Wholesale Corp. The settlement, which includes unspecified monetary damages to be paid by CyeBye, prohibits CyeBye from sending e-mail messages of any kind that include the Amazon.com name without specific authorization from Amazon. A spokesman for CyeBye reached by Internet Retailer called the matter "a small thing" but declined further comment.
But CyeBye has also run up against the New York State Attorney General’s Office, which today announced a settlement with CyeBye of civil fraud charges related to its use of the Amazon name in its e-mail marketing programs. The New York settlement prohibits CyeBye from using third parties’ names in marketing programs unless it obtains authority from those third parties, and requires it to pay $10,000 in penalties. CyeBye also must keep records of all commercial e-mails during the next two years and provide the Attorney General’s Office with regular updates of its compliance with the settlement.
Others named in its lawsuits include Fort Collins, CO-based Royal Responder, which marketed tools for creating and sending e-mail spam; and Cyberpower Pty. Ltd., which participated in a scheme that advertised free cash grants through GrantGiveaways.com. Both marketers used non-existent Amazon.com e-mail addresses in the "from" column of their e-mail messages.
Amazon says its lawsuits are part of a broader company initiative to crack down on and eliminate e-mail forgeries. "Spoofing is an illegal, deceptive online marketing ploy that conceals the true identity of an e-mail sender and instead falsely identifies someone else as the sender," Amazon said. The company has set up a special e-mail account, Stop-Spoofing@Amazon.com, for consumers to report suspected spoofing involving the Amazon brand.
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