Boca stamping itself spam capital

May 6, 2003

Tim O'Meilia
Palm Beach Post

Remember when Boca Raton was dubbed the unofficial center of American telemarketing, of the dinnertime phone call wanting to know whether you've had your ducts cleaned lately?

Now Boca has moved into cyberspace.

"Boca Raton is stamping itself worldwide for millions of Internet users flooded in spam as the 'world spam capital,' " said Steve Linford, director of the Spamhaus Project, an international anti-spam organization based in Great Britain.

Many of those unsolicited e-mails for cut-rate Viagra, low-cost mortgages, reused ink jet cartridges and FREE GIRLS!!! come from Boca, Linford said.

It's another dubious distinction for a town also noted as a haven for securities scams.

"We'd rather be known for our parks and quality of life," Boca Raton Mayor Steven Abrams said.

"It's not like a Boca address adds something to your e-mail. The origin is not even identified," he said. "Spam happens, regardless."

Linford's Web site, www.spamhaus.org, lists the 180 worst spammers, people or firms that have been blocked at least three times from Internet service providers. Major providers often use that list and others compiled by similar organizations to filter spam -- unsolicited e-mail -- from their members' e-mails.

But now the direct e-mailers are striking back. Boca Raton Emarketersamerica.org filed suit April 14 in federal court in Fort Lauderdale against Spamhaus and another group, Spews.org, claiming the anti-spam groups are interfering with their business.

"It's easy for these anti-spammers to label and blacklist companies as spammers, even if it means destroying a legitimate business," Emarketersamerica.org lawyer Mark Felstein said in a statement last week.

Felstein said he represents "permission-based e-mail marketers" but refused to identify them. He said he's already been harassed by anti-spammers and doesn't want to subject his clients to similar attacks.

Boca group a proponent of regulation

Emarketersamerica.org has no Web site, Felstein said, because Web-hosting firms are afraid they will be blacklisted. The nonprofit organization was formed March 10, according to Florida records.

Felstein attended a three-day Federal Trade Commission forum last week in Washington on how to deal with spam. Spam accounts for 45 percent of all e-mails now, according to Brightmail, a firm that creates spam-filtering software.

"Our organization wants to clean up and and regulate the e-mail marketing industry because spam only gives permission-based e-mail a bad name. But the anti-spammers have a mob mentality and want to get rid of both the innocent and the guilty," Felstein said.

Linford called the filing a SLAPP suit (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), meant to harass and intimidate his group.

"We get lawsuit threats all the time; it's unfortunately the nature of this work," he said.

He said Emarketersamerica.org is a front for a band of notorious South Florida spammers who send unsolicited e-mails.

"An overwhelming large amount of these 180 are in Florida, with most being in Boca Raton," Linford said.

Abrams speculated that maybe it's because a lot of legitimate Internet firms are headquartered in the city. He took the spam label in good humor.

"I don't think they even sell Spam at supermarkets in Boca," he joked.

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