After a setback in Maryland last week, where a court found Maryland’s anti-spam statute unconstitutional, a federal judge in Iowa goosed some spammers really well. An article in CNN reports the damage award to be in the billions. Of course the real problem is collection with spammers playing a shell game. As that article says:
Kramer’s attorney, Kelly Wallace, said he is unlikely to ever collect the judgment, which was made possible by an Iowa law that allows plaintiffs to claim damages of $10 per spam message. The judgments were then tripled under RICO.
RICO is a neat thing and something I have some experience with (from the good side of it I might add). Showing that the activity was that of a corrupt organization may allow you to hammer them with three times what you otherwise might receive. Good luck to them on collections.
