Yahoo! Awarded $610 Million Against Spammers
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), the premier digital media company, today
announced it has been awarded a $610 million default judgment against
spammers responsible for a fake Yahoo! lottery email scheme. In the
scheme, email messages were unlawfully sent to Internet users with the
intent of deceiving them into believing they had won a lottery prize
offered by Yahoo!. The order was handed down by a federal district court
judge in New York on Monday, December 5, 2011.
The order in Yahoo!'s favor was the culmination of a multi-year lawsuit
that began in 2008. The judge found the defaulting defendants jointly
and severally liable as participants in a conspiracy under New York
common law. The $610 million judgment was comprised of a statutory
damages award for trademark infringement in the amount of $27 million
and a statutory damages award for violation of the CAN-SPAM Act in the
amount of $583 million. Yahoo! was also awarded attorneys' fees.
This type of lottery scam is a hoax designed to trick unsuspecting email
users into revealing valuable personal data such as passwords, credit
card information, and social security numbers. The perpetrators
typically use the stolen information to access recipients' bank accounts
and credit cards, to apply for unauthorized credit cards or loans, or to
fraudulently create documents bearing the victims' personal
identification and then use or sell it in a wide variety of credit and
identity scams. Some of the "winners" are also deceived into sending the
defendants money for processing and mailing charges.
"Yahoo! takes the protection if its users and its brand very seriously,"
said Christian Dowell, legal director, Global Brand Protection. "Our
ultimate goal is to ensure that users continue to trust Yahoo! as the
leading U.S. email provider."
Yahoo! maintains an ongoing strategy to fight spam and phishing scams on
the Internet. Tips and information about its multi-faceted approach can
be found at http://antispam.yahoo.com/.
About Yahoo!
Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) is the premier digital media company, creating
deeply personal digital experiences that keep more than half a billion
people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around
the globe. And Yahoo!'s unique combination of Science + Art + Scale
connects advertisers to the consumers who build their businesses. Yahoo!
is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit
the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.com)
or the company's blog, Yodel Anecdotal (yodel.yahoo.com).
Yahoo! is the trademark and/or registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc.
All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their
respective owners.
Yahoo!
Media Contact:
Dana Lengkeek, 415-994-4008
danal@yahoo-inc.com
Investor
Contact:
Cathy La Rocca, 408-349-5188
cathy@yahoo-inc.com
Source: Yahoo! Inc.
News Provided by Acquire Media
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