The US Federal Trade Commission has launched an operation to crack
down on deceptive spam. Seven individuals have now agreed to settle
charges that they were spamming consumers with deceptive chain
letters.
The illegal chain letters promised "$46,000 or more in the next
90 days," or similar extravagant amounts to recipients who were to
send $5.00 in cash to each of four or five participants at the top
of the list.
The letters instructed new recruits to place their own name and
address at the top of the list and remove the name on the bottom.
In return for the $5.00 payment, recruits received "reports"
providing instructions about how to start their own chain letter
schemes and recruit tens of thousands of others via spam.
In September 2000, the FTC sent letters to 1,000 spammers,
warning them that their chain letter spam scheme was illegal and
instructing them to stop promoting their chain letters, to return
any money they had received by participating in the program, and to
forward a copy of the FTC's warning letter to everyone they had
spammed.
In October 2001, the FTC searched on-line newsgroups and the
agency's junk e-mail database looking for the chain letter scam.
They found more than 2,000 participants in the chain letter from
almost 60 countries around the world. Using undercover post office
boxes and e-mail accounts, FTC investigators sent the requisite
$5.00 fee to individuals who had previously been warned, but who
appeared to be continuing in the scheme. Those who responded by
sending the undercover FTC employees the "report" demonstrated that
despite the FTC warning letter, they continued to participate in
the illegal chain letter spam.
