SimpleNet Awarded Judgment in Spam Lawsuit

SimpleNet in San Diego, a provider of Web
hosting services, said it was awarded a default judgment of $174,000 in
compensatory damages in a federal case against a group of defendants who
deluged its servers with spam.

The defendants illegally obtained SimpleNet customer e-mail address lists and
sent approximately 100,000 spam messages during a four-month period in 1997,
the company said. At times, hundreds of messages per hour were sent. The
content promoted a book titled, “Meet, Attract and Date Gorgeous Women.”

SimpleNet also announced plans to request that the San Diego County district
attorney pursue criminal charges against the series of small, San Diego-based
companies and individuals involved in the spamming.

The defendants include VNZ Information and Entertainment Services; Far East
Mortgage Service; Son T. Nyuyen; Trouang Nyugen; An Van Nyugen; John Nyugen; Phoi Tran; and Thanh Phan. Judgment for the plaintiff was made by default because the defendants chose not to appear in the court on Monday.

“Although we are pleased with the court’s ruling, we will also seek criminal
charges because the named defendants have orchestrated an intricate and highly
deceptive plan to defraud SimpleNet and its customers,” said Allen R.
Cocumelli, general counsel for SimpleNet.