Kraft sued over alleged Gevalia spam

Examples of coffee spam
But Wagner said Hypertouch has continued to receive Gevalia spam, even after the lawsuit was filed on Monday.

"Try Gevalia coffee and get a free stainless steel coffeemaker," says one message, which appears to come from a sender named Sarah Miller at a Web site named BreedingCoverage.com. But the IP address in the e-mail doesn't resolve to BreedingCoverage servers, the lawsuit claims, indicating the e-mail header information had been faked. It was sent to Hypertouch last Nov. 5, according to the lawsuit.

Another spam in the lawsuit contains a chunk of text copied from ABCNews.com, apparently in an effort to evade spam filters. And on March 26, 2005, the lawsuit claims, representatives of Gevalia sent 761 similar spam e-mails claiming to be from 761 different people — indicating marketing companies were hiding behind fake names, the lawsuit says.

Most of the e-mails are sent by third-party marketing firms, Fallat said. Kraft still benefits from the messages, however, and is funding illegal spam efforts, he charged.

"These kinds of e-mails should not be coming from the Fortune 500," Fallat said. "This is an important lawsuit because we want to send a message to big corporate America that ... they are under an obligation to monitor and supervise third-party marketers to ensure they do not send out fraudulent e-mail."

Wagner said he approached Kraft last November with evidence of spamming efforts, and offered to settle the case without a lawsuit if Kraft agreed to stop sending the messages. In February, he called a Kraft attorney and said that potential lawsuit damages were mounting, and now totaled $5 million.

"Wow, $5 million," he said the Kraft lawyer responded, sarcastically. The lawyer didn't respond to MSNBC.com's requests to verify the conversation.  Kraft's Riso said she couldn't verify it.

Both Wagner and Fallat have filed spam-related lawsuits before. In March, the two sued BobVila.com for allegedly sending out spam. Wagner said they are now in settlement conversations.

MORE FROM SECURITY

Security Section Front

Man in stolen cell phone pic turns himself in Teen Internet addicts more likely to self harm Beware of online ‘Breaking Dawn’ casting scam Web ad group launches privacy education effort Facebook to overhaul privacy structure Avoid flirty patients on Facebook, doctors told ‘Black screen of death’ for some Windows users Red Tape: Will piracy crackdown bring iPod border checks? Internet activists push for greater democracy EU assembly adopts Internet, phone user rights Security Section Front   Add Security headlines to your news reader: