Affiliate Networks Sued by MySpace

The BIG talk in the world of affiliate marketing over the last couple of days is MySpace.com, which is owned by News Corp., has Filed a Federal Lawsuit in Los Angeles against the self-proclaimed “Spam King” Scott Richter, who runs Optinrealbig.com (e-mail marketing company in Westminster, Colorado), now known as Media Breakaway - a direct marketing firm for allegedly used the popular social networking site to send millions of messages promoting websites that hawked items such as ring tones and Polo shirts.

The suit claims Scott Richter and his associates violated the federal CAN-SPAM Act and California state law when they sent millions of spam bulletins from MySpace accounts without user knowledge.

According to a MySpace news release,

“We’re committed to protecting our community from phishing and spam,” said Hemanshu “Hemu” Nigam, MySpace CSO. “If it takes filing a federal suit to stop someone who violates the law and damages our members’ experience, then that’s what we’ll do.”

Jon at Wicked Fire posted PDF of Court Documents, even it only names Richter and 2 other individuals in the documents, according to Jon - there are many more to come …

The bad news is those networks that be cracked down probably won’t be able to pay all those spamming affiliates that thought they were gaming the system as well as those non-spamming affiliates

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