Colorado 'spam king' sued by MySpace

Rocky Mountain News

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

One-time "spam king" Scott Richter is back in the headlines.

The online social networking Web site MySpace.com has sued the Westminster businessman once accused of being one of the world's top three spammers, saying he gained access to MySpace profiles using stolen passwords and used the information to send spam bulletins.

MySpace, which is owned by News Corp., claims Richter and his companies, including Westminster-based OptInRealBig. com and Mediabreakway.com, sent millions of spam messages to members using technology that made the messages look like they had come from members' accounts.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and asks for damages, an injunction preventing Richter and his companies from accessing MySpace, and repayment of all profits gained as a result.

In a release sent Monday night, Steven Richter, general counsel to Media Breakaway LLC and Scott Richter, its CEO, said: "Like everyone else in the industry we are only aware of what MySpace has alleged in their press release, as we have not been served. Obviously we deny the allegations made in the press release."

Steven Richter adds that he spoke with MySpace lawyers about some complaints they received, and "we cooperated with them fully and were assured that if there were any outstanding issues, they would get back to us. I guess this is their way of getting back to us."

In August 2005, Scott Richter grabbed headlines when he agreed to pay $7 million to Microsoft Corp. and promised not to transmit bulk unsolicited e-mail, or spam.