News 

In the suit brought by US ISP EarthLink, members of a group known as the 'Alabama Spam Ring' were alleged to have 'engaged in a massive scheme of theft, spamming and spoofing', including using falsified names, false addresses and non-existent corporate entities to disguise the identities of individuals involved.

Two of the group, Damon DeCrescenzo and David Burstyn, have now agreed to a court

ADVERTISEMENT

order forbidding them to continue these practices and to pay an undisclosed cash settlement.

'Today's announcement is the latest in a long list of legal victories that EarthLink has garnered as an advocate for consumers in the fight against spam,' said Larry Slovensky, assistant general counsel for EarthLink. 'Filing lawsuits against alleged spammers and seeking court orders that put them out of business is an important way that EarthLink helps preserve the integrity of the Internet for all users.'

The suit was brought under federal and state civil RICO laws, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and the Georgia Computer Systems Protection Act.

The victory isn't the first in EarthLink's legal assault on spammers. Previously, EarthLink won a $16.4mn judgment and injunctive relief against Howard Carmack, aka the 'Buffalo Spammer,' shutting down an operation that had generated more than 825 million spam e-mails on the Internet.