It has been a rough year for Internet spammers. On March 14, the so-called ?Spam King of Seattle,? Robert Soloway, pleaded guilty to felony mail fraud and fraud charges in United States District Court in Seattle, Washington. The case revolved around the millions of unsolicited e-mails that he sent around the world through his junk e-mail business. (See Case No. 2:07-cr-00187-MJP.) Then, on May 12, 2008, U.S. District Judge Audrey B. Collins of the Central District of California delivered a nearly $240 million ruling against two other ?Spam Kings? in favor of the web community MySpace.com. The defendants, Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines, failed to appear at the hearing, and a default judgment was entered against them on May 30, 2008 (see Case No. 2:07-cv-01929-ABC-AGR)..........

Now, spammers are facing another challenge: On May 16, 2008, Internet giant Yahoo! Inc. filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (in New York City), against an unknown group of defendants, alleging that defendants fooled consumers into believing that they had won a lottery prize from Yahoo. (See Case No. 1:08-cv-04581- LTS.)

See full newsletter for more information.