I think I'm going to take a spammer to court...

[denny]

...which hopefully will be satisfying, if I can figure out the details. The company who are sending the spam (on behalf of the company who I think I'll end up taking to court) are called DBS Datamarketing Ltd. They were previously called Emailmovers and/or Database Solutions. They've ignored any number of remove requests and angry rants cc'ed to their unsubscribe addresses, and I'd really prefer to get them as well, if I can. Anybody else run across them?

Anyway, obviously the people who pay them are ultimatedly responsible, and tonight I've received a third spam from a UK company whose Marketing Director replied to my 'stop sending me spam' email (which was in reply to their first spam (of those which I've kept)) saying that he was very sorry and would personally talk to Emailmovers about the problem. So that seems like a fairly clear failure to opt me out, let alone the initial failure to opt me in.

Does anybody know anyone who has successfully put one of these cases through? I can only find one by googling, and I don't know how difficult it is to prove the point, and how you decide how much damages to try to claim etc. Any informed advice would be very very welcome at this stage.

Comments

[pooloftrees.livejournal.com]

Good luck. Do you have any IP addresses and I'll grep my maillogs to see if I can add to the list?

[glamwhorebunni.livejournal.com]

If you do this, you will be a national hero.

The Daily Mail will write articles praising you.

Urgh.

[pooloftrees.livejournal.com]

Sorry to comment spam (ironic, isn't it), but you might be interested in the following links:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/15/nspam15.xml (Microsoft doing some good for once, and interestingly the spammer is local to MK)

And another site quoting the case you have already found: http://www.spamfo.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=000370
At the bottom there is a link for a "'DIY Kit' for suing spammers in the English Courts" - however it currently sadly has no content: http://spamlegalaction.pbwiki.com/FindOut

Also, the Office of Fair Trading's website offer's some advice: http://www.oft.gov.uk/Consumer/Spam/default.htm

I hope these help...

[pooloftrees.livejournal.com]

I wish there was an edit button...

Anyway, regarding the first case I mentioned, here is the transcript and judgement:

http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:J63RB2gj3YUJ:www.juriscom.net/documents/highcourtjce20061212.pdf+%22Paul+McDonald%22+MK&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=uk&client=firefox-a

[robert-jones.livejournal.com]

Off the top of my head, it strikes me that you'll have difficulty showing you've suffered any loss.

[pooloftrees.livejournal.com]

While it may be difficult getting compensation for anything other than legal fees, I believe he does have a case under the Privacy and Electronic
Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 regarding the initial adding of his address without opt in, and failure of them to remove it when requested.

Also, although I've not looked further into it, I suspect that companies using another companies services for advertising in this manner can be held responsible for their agent's actions on their behalf (the sending of the spam advertising their products or services).

However, to add to what I said at the start, I suspect that the reward for Denny will be less financial, more emotional...

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought, but it's been done in the past.

[pooloftrees.livejournal.com]

You might want to read this:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/3009-sue-a-spammer-get-1-300-in-damages-and-costs.html

With this successful case, it should count as a precedent...