British company named in porn spam clampdown

At least one British company is among six accused of sending X-rated e-mails in disguise, and fraudulently charging recipients who joined sexually explicit websites, to be shut down by US authorities.

It is the first legal case in the US involving porn internet spam.

A federal judge granted the US Federal Trade Commission’s request for a restraining order against the companies and their executives for allegedly violating laws governing commercial electronic mail – commonly known as spam.

The companies named included Global Net Ventures Ltd, of Britain and Wedlake Ltd, whose headquarters address was not listed.

Among the laws allegedly violated was the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act.

Dubbed “Can Spam,” the law requires unsolicited commercial e-mail that contains sexually oriented material to include the words SEXUALLY EXPLICIT” in the subject line.

Tracking down violators can be difficult because spammers often try to escape being directly identified by using forged return addresses or by bouncing their e-mails through unprotected relay computers on the Internet.