America Online Inc has filed suit in federal court against Las Vegas-based Over the Air Equipment Inc, charging that the company has repeatedly been sending junk e-mail, or spam, to AOL subscribers in spite of numerous requests to cease doing so. In the suit, AOL alleges that Over the Air used deceptive practices, including falsifying transmission data such as e-mail headers and routing information, to avoid AOL’s mail controls and dump vast quantities of unsolicited mail onto the screens of AOL users. AOL says that the spammer also fraudulently copied one of its trademarks in order to create the impression that the website it was promoting – a cyber-stripper site – had the endorsement of AOL. To top it off, requests from users who requested to be removed from the mailing list were ignored. In February, a Philadelphia court ruled against Cyber Promotions Inc in similar suit filed by AOL, ordering the spammer to stop using false information to send unsolicited mail to AOL users (CI No 3,096). AOL reached a legal settlement with Cyber Promotions which allowed it to continue sending the advertising to only those subscribers who specifically requested it.
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