More Information and Background on Cyber Promotions

The following sections contain websites where articles describing Cyber Promotions' operations, practices, and attitudes may be found.

In addition, some contacts and links to contacts are provided which may help.

This list will be revised as new information and locations are found.

Legal Actions

America On Line - Cyber Promotions suit against AOL and the AOL countersuit were combined. There are a lot of facets to this case, so background material is must first reading.

New York Times - A series of articles dealing with Cyber Promo and the AOL lawsuit. MUST READING! You have to fill out a form for a password, but it's free. There are buttons on the form to let them know if you will accept mail from them and/or their advertisers. CAUTION: These buttons default to 'on', so if you *DON'T* want to get on mailing lists, be sure to un-press them.
AOL's Complaint filed 8 April 1996. This complaint followed Wallace's initial use of AOL addresses in his mailings. It sets the stage for all that follows.
- http://www.bna.com/e-law/docs/aolcyber.html
Temporary Restraining Order filed 4 Sept 1996. this short-lived order temporarily restrained blocking of CyberPromo mail by AOL.
- http://www.jmls.edu/cyber/cases/aol-cp0.html
Memorandum Opinion and Order The 4 November 1996 ruling by Judge Weiner which denies Wallace's claim to a 'free-speech' right to send mail to AOL (and others) and affirms AOL's right to block his junk mail. (Both URL's contain the same text with slightly different formatting.)
- http://www.leepfrog.com/E-Law/Cases/Cyber_Promo_v_AOL.html
- http://www.epic.org/free_speech/cyberp_v_aol.html
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER 26 November 1996. "A mere two days after this Court ruled in a Memorandum Opinion and Order dated November 4, 1996 that Cyber Promotions, Inc. ("Cyber") does not have a right under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or under the Constitutions of Pennsylvania and Virginia to send unsolicited e-mail advertisements over the Internet to subscribers of American Online, Inc. ("AOL"), Cyber filed a motion for leave to amend its First Amended Complaint to assert an entirely different yet equally untenable theory which it claims gives it the right to use AOL's private property free of charge to send millions of e-mail advertisements to AOL subscribers--that AOL's blocking of Cyber's e-mail advertisements in favor of its own advertising violates the federal antitrust laws."
- http://www.jmls.edu/cyber/cases/aol-cp2.html
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER ON RECONSIDERATION 20 December 1996. After getting new counsel, Wallace tries again, re-visiting old arguments. According to Judge Weiner, Wallace "submitted yet another 'Declaration of Sanford A. Wallace' in support of its motion for reconsideration. The Court has reviewed the declaration and finds that it simply contains additional proposed "facts" in the form of self-serving opinions about the Internet in general and e-mail in particular..." None of these were persuasive, and the motion to reconsider was denied.
- http://www.jmls.edu/cyber/cases/aol-cp3.html
Case Settlement The articles above document the background of this case. A settlement was reached on 4 Feb whereby AOL will allow Cyber Promotions to send to their customers only via 5 designated domains, but they will block mail from AOL customers not specifically toggling an 'I want junk email' selection on one of their pages. Several articles discuss this settlement.
- http://nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/020697spam.html
- http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,7635,00.html A short bulletin.
- http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,7648,00.html Longer Article

Concentric Net wins some relief in court - Wallace signs Declaration under penalty of perjury that he will not use Concentric Net for spamming.

Concentric's press release (contains link to text of Declaration)-
http://home.concentric.net/what/pr/spam.html
http://home.concentric.net/what/pr/spam2.html
http://home.concentric.net/what/pr/declaration.html
http://home.concentric.net/what/pr/finaljudgment.html
San Jose Mercury News article on the action - 10 Oct 96 -
http://www.sjmercury.com/business/compute/spam1010.htm
The law firm of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati handled the case for Concentic. They have the text of the ruling on their pages as a downloadable Adobe PDF file -
http://wsgrgate.wsgr.com/Resources/IntProp/Briefs/concen.htm
Concentric's revised (effective 22 Feb 1997) Terms of Service (TOS) prohibits mail spamming and adds monetary penalties -
http://home.concentric.net/support/tos/

Compuserve Legal Actions - Compuserve got a temporary restraining order against use of their name in Cyber Promo mailings and asked for further prohibitions against Wallace targeting their customers. Ruling came on 3 Feb.

Article from C/Net news on 5 Dec 1996: http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,5967,00.html
Ruling issued 3 Feb: A preliminary injunction was granted prohibiting Cyber Promotions from mailing to any address maintained by CompuServe.
- C/NET article at: http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,7595,00.html
- Text of the Memorandum Opinion an Order (51Kb) at: http://www.tigerden.com/junkmail/cases/CSorder.html and also at: http://www.leepfrog.com/E-Law/Cases/CompuServe_v_Cyber_Promo.html
- The law firm of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, which handled the Concentric case were also co-counsel for CompuServe. They have the text of the order on their pages as a downloadable Adobe PDF file - http://wsgrgate.wsgr.com/Resources/IntProp/Briefs/compu.htm
6 May 1977 - CompuServe announces a settlement. - The court will be petitioned to enter an order accepting a consent agreement whereby only CyberPromo mail may send mail ads to those expressly asking to receive it. Provisions are to include 'controlled procedures' for sending the mail and stiff penalties for violation of the conditions of the settlement. Wallace was also hit with about $65,000 in costs for legal fees by CompuServe.
- Text of the press release from Compuserve is at:
  http://www.tigerden.com/junkmail/cases/CSpress1.html
- A ZDNet article is at: http://www5.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/zdnn/0505/zdnn0017.html
9 May 1977 - Final Consent Order by Stipulation - This is the court document filed 9 May in Philadelphia outlinging actual terms of the settlement. http://www.tigerden.com/junkmail/cases/CSRVFCO.html

Prodigy wins settlemet - Along with Compuserve, Prodigy's name was also used by Wallace to mis-identify his machines. This settlement also had a cash award for the ensuing trademark infringement.

Article from C/Net news on 13 Dec 1996:
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,6218,00.html
Prodigy press release on 13 Dec 1996:
http://spam.abuse.net/spam/news/prodigy.html

Earthlink - On 6 April, Cyber Promotions spammed a press release stating "A judge in Los Angeles Superior Court rejected an attempt by Earthlink, an Internet Service Provider, to obtain an injunction against Cyber Promotions' bulk e-mail service, ruling that Earthlink had not proved that Cyber had done anything wrong." In typical Wallace style, the rest of the message hails this as a victory for his spamming business. However, other information indicates this may just be the first round in the court action by Earthlink. Although details initially were sketchy and unverified, the case isn't as closed as the Cyber Promotions press release implies.

On 30 April, Earthlink issued a press release entitled "SPAMMERS BEWARE EarthLink Network declares war on Internet abuses". This confirms the lawsuit against Cyber Promotions, and admits to some difficulty with obtaining an initial injunction. The press release is at:

http://www.earthlink.net/company/spammers_beware.html

CyberPromo and AGIS - Although not discussing a legal action, this article hilights a mysterious outage at AGIS network, Wallace's latest connectivity provider. Some speculate may this outage may have been the result of an attack by someone angry over AGIS's inaction in dealing with the spammers they haven, most notably Cyber Promotions. This article also mentions that AGIS is re-evaluating its use policies and may be making an announcement on revisions soon.
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/041997agis.html

The 'announcement' alluded to above turned out to be a form of 'remove list' plan. See the AGIS discussion below for more information on this plan.

Other web pages discussing Cyber Promotions

The CyberPromo FAQ - The Cyberpromo FAQ is a comprehensive documentation of the activities of Cyber Promotions, a company widely regarded as one of the greatest abusers of the internet. This document includes a listing of all known business practices of this company as well as an updated list of all known domains, netblocks, IP addresses, and other information about this company and its leader, Sanford Wallace. The Cyberpromo FAQ is maintained at the following sites:

Web site: http://members.aol.com/macabrus/cpfaq.html
Text Only: ftp://members.aol.com/macabrus/cyberpromofaq

Garbage In Garbage Out - deals with many aspects of the spam situation. Including an *entire section* devoted to Cyber Promo. This section includes quite a bit of past history, Wallace quotes, and horror stories about just the sort of tactics Cyber/Wallace employ. Good background material.

Main page -
http://www.mindspring.com/~mdpas/gigo.html
'Your Pals at Promo Enterprises' section -
http://www.mindspring.com/~mdpas/promo/pe_count.html

MSNBC Interview - An article about CyberPromo's spams and an interview with Sanford Wallace. Includes audio clips for those capable of receiving MSN's format for audio.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/31006.asp

I HATE Junk E-Mail Web page - Some fairly extensive information, including a number of responses from Cyber Promo's 'less-than-pleased' customers who tried to advertise using his spam service.

http://members.aol.com/tomraynor/junkemai.htm

Information Law Alert - Story about Cyber Promo and Wallace. Wallace quotes showing his attitudes and tactics. Covers both the Philadelphia case, and the Virginia suit.

http://infolawalert.com/stories/061496a.html

Inc.- Yet another story in the magazine for small business. This one goes down the litany of providers Wallace has been booted from, although it's not quite up to date. Since that story, he's been booted from Servint/CAIS. He now infests Sprintlink.

http://www.inc.com/incmagazine/archives/16960221.html

This is more recent than the article mentioned above and includes a sample junk ad, transcript of an online chat session discussing junk mail, and several letters on the issue. Their Letters to the Editor online-bulletin board lets you submit your opinion.

http://www.inc.com/beyondthemag/online_entrepreneur/junk.html

Attorney Mark Welch's Junk Email Pages - Mr Welch has had some personal contact with Sanford Wallace, and even reports a personal threat from him. He has an extensive set of pages concerning Cyber Promotions and other spammers at:

http://www.ca-probate.com/aol_junk.htm and

http://www.ca-probate.com/cyberpro.htm

Some history of Cyber Promo with the BBB and ISPs

Better Business Bureau - The BBB's mission is to promote accurate and responsible advertising, and can be a valuable asset in the war against junk e-mail. You can even file a complaint on-line. Be sure to urge them to come out strongly against the invasive, cost-shifting, practice of *unsolicited* bulk e-mailing as an advertising technique.
Cyber Promotions touted their (now revoked) BBB membership on their web page. Doing this in itself is illegal according to the BBB, since it's using their trademarked name. On 1 October, the BBB suspended membership for Cyber Promo due to numerous complaints and Cyber's failure to correct the situation. A review for possible revocation of membership took place in November, and Cyber Promotions BBB membership was permanently revoked on 19 November. Despite this fact, Cyber Promotions web pages still touted CyberPromo BBB membership well into December. Only after BBB lawyers sent registered mail to CyberPromo over illegal use of their name, was the claim of membership finally removed from the web page in late December.
It's important to inform the BBB of your opinion on unsolicited e-mail from Cyber Promotions, or other sources and file any complaints you may have.
An actual name to write to who is very familiar with the situation:
The address below if for the national council of BBBs. The issue to address when writing here is that the BBB should set national policy which opposes unsolicited bulk e-mail as advertising practice. No truly responsible business should advertise in this manner which makes *you* pay the postage for their ad.
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SPRINT - Starting about September 96, Sprintlink became one more in a series of network access providers which have been infested by Cyber Promo. Cyber Promo had been booted from at least one area provider under Capital Area Internet Service, and are were subsequently getting their connectivity to the net through Sprintlink until 18 October when this major national backbone provider dumpped them as well. This was only after extreme public outcry and after forgery of Cyber Promo mailer machines to identify themselves as CompuServe or Prodigy machines. This disconnection lasted only a few days, but after reconnection, Cyber Promo was given notice of permanent disconnection on 15 November.
Having rid itself of both Cyber Promotions and Moneyworld, both for issues of forgery or technical reasons rather than the spamming itself, Sprint played host to Earthstar.com, another bulk junk mailer rivaling Cyber Promo in its pervasiveness. They finally disconnected Earthstar on 12 December. A 'revised' policy on abuse was announced in early February, and has since been used to rid the network of at least one other major spam factory, Sallynet/Nancynet.
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MCI - After being booted from Sprint, Wallace got a new haven at a 'bulk-mail-friendly' ISP, isp-inter.net. Isp-inter.net's spokesman publicly debated his own concept of what constitued responsible e-mail use on the usenet 'news.admin.net-abuse.misc' newsgroup. In addition to providing host addresses for Wallace's bevy of spam machines, isp-inter.net pumped out its own flood of junk mail. Their 'twist' on the game was a promise to put (UCE) into the subject line of each message so that it can be easily spotted/ignored/filtered. Of course that didn't address the issue that the message still costs the receiver and the receiver's provider to get it, then decide to trash it. The tag also appeared in several different forms, and was inconsistent in it's use.
MCI went through a spate with MoneyWorld, another spammer which took weeks to disconnect due to a legal hitch in the contract. It had been hoped that MCI would have taken a lesson from this incident, but it seemed not. They are very cautious to the point of seeming to be doing nothing. However, they *do* have a policy in place, and eventually do enforce it. They finally disconnected ISP-Inter.net and Cyber Promo around 13 February.
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WorldCom/UUnet - About 15 April, Cyber Promotions announced in a press release that it had signed a 3-year agreement with WorldCom/UUnet which supposedly acknowledged his intent to send unsolicited e-mail. Inquiries started flowing to WorldCom to confirm the truth of this information, and in an announcement a few days later, on 23 April, WorldCom indicated the contract was invalid, that they had no intention of serving Cyber Promotions, and re-affirming their staunch opposition against spam.
- A ZDNet Inter@ctive Week story on 24 April about Cyber Promo's announcemnt of signing with WorldCom is at:
  http://www5.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/inwk/0412/inwk0008.html
- A ZDNet Inter@ctive Week story on 30 April in which WorldCom rejects the contract as invalid is at:
  http://www5.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/inwk/0413/inwk0046.html
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AGIS - After leaving ISP-Inter.net under MCI, Cyber Promo re-emerged under Apex Global Information Systems (AGIS). This provider is a large national backbone much like Sprint or MCI, though not quite as large or well known. AGIS has taken a total 'hands-off' policy, insisting they only carry traffic and are not responsible for any traffic content or other behavior of their customers. At the moment, they are considered to be a irresponsible 'rogue' provider by many, and there is talk of isolating their entire network by some others. As a minimum, some sites are blocking all domains known to harbor Cyber Promotions, Quantumcom, Camelot.net, and several other major spammers who, after being booted by other providers, are finding haven at AGIS. While Sprint took a similar view early on, the shear volume of spams and resulting complaints forced them to re-evaluate their position, and they finally did impose and are enforcing a policy. The complaints are now rolling into AGIS, but it remains to be seen if they, too, will respond to them.
On 23 April, AGIS announced a 'solution' to the junk mail problem which is no more than a 'opt-out' global remove list which they would require spammers connected by them to use. This move is largely seen as a PR effort rather than a real solution since similar solutions have been proposed, tried, and have failed to be effective. The proposal also dosen't address the cost-shifting that occurs whenever unsolicited junk advertising is received by a user or provider. A later 'press release' was posted to usenet and attributed to Walt Rines, 'spokesman' for the proposed organization of AGIS and spammers. Rines, who operates Quantum Communications (quantcom.com and quantumcom.net) is a well known spammer in his own right. This 'solution' is being broadly denounced.
The AGIS press release on the subject is at:
http://www.agis.net/press24.htm
It should be noted that with the announcement of spam prohibitions by PSI, AGIS is now the only large backbone provider condoning UCE.
Some additional information about AGIS is at http://www.tigerden.com/junkmail/compladdr.html#AGIS.
There's also an independently maintained FAQ about AGIS at:
- Web Site: http://members.aol.com/macabrus/agisfaq.html
- Text Only: ftp://members.aol.com/macabrus/agisfaq
ISPam.net - Wallace adopted his pejorative nickname 'Spamford' and has gone on to flaunt his spamming businesses. Around mid March 1997, he began operation of his 'ISPam' facility, allegedly a spam haven ISP, which, of course, operates with AGIS connectivity.

Other anti-junk e-mail sites

Back to Call for Action page

Access count: since 1 Oct 96.
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Last revised: 2 May 1997