MySpace Brings Suit to Stop Spam

World's Leading Lifestyle Portal Files Suit Against Scott Richter And Others For Violations Of State And Federal Laws

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MySpace.com, the world's leading lifestyle portal, announced today that it filed suit against Scott Richter, for violations of state and federal laws including the CAN-SPAM Act and California's anti-spam statute. The suit, filed in United States District Court in Los Angeles on Friday, seeks a permanent injunction barring Richter and his affiliated companies from the MySpace site in addition to unspecified monetary damages.

“We're committed to protecting our community from phishing and spam”

MySpace alleges in the suit that between July and December 2006, Richter and his associates arranged for millions of spam "bulletins" to be sent from MySpace users' accounts without their knowledge. According to the lawsuit, Richter either phished MySpace accounts himself or acquired a list of phished accounts to launch spam campaigns. The campaigns promote websites offering products and services such as ringtones and polo shirts, according to MySpace’s filing.

"We're committed to protecting our community from phishing and spam," said Hemanshu Nigam, Chief Security Officer for MySpace. "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.”

Richter previously has been sued by Microsoft and then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. According to Microsoft, Richter agreed in a post-judgment settlement to pay $7 million and to make “fundamental changes” in his email practices. According to Spitzer’s office, Richter settled that case for both monetary damages and specific changes in his e-mail campaigns.

MySpace's suit against Richter is the latest in a series of aggressive steps MySpace has taken over the last two years to combat spam, phishing and other abusive misuse of the MySpace site. MySpace's successes in this area include:

• Securing a favorable settlement in a federal suit against a distributor of an authorized bot that facilitated spamming on the site;

• Obtaining a settlement including injunctive relief and the payment of monetary damages in another federal suit against the sponsor of an affiliate program that was promoted by spammers;

• Filing a multi-million dollar suit against TGLO/The Globe for spamming MySpace users and violating the MySpace terms of use agreement;

• Assisting law enforcement in taking criminal action against Samy (aka "Samy Is My Hero") and the operators of "MySpace Plus" for alleged criminal activity related to spam, unauthorized bots and/or phishing on the site.

About MySpace.com

MySpace, a unit of Fox Interactive Media Inc., is the premier lifestyle portal for connecting with friends, discovering popular culture, and making a positive impact on the world. By integrating web profiles, video, mobile communications, instant messaging and more, MySpace has created a global connected community with a wide array of communication choices. As the highest ranked website in terms of page views(a), MySpace is the most widely-used and highly-regarded site of its kind. MySpace’s international network includes localized community sites in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Germany, Australia and Ireland.

(a) Among the top 2000 domains comScore Media Metrix, November 2006. For more information on comScore Networks, please go to http://www.comscore.com.