Internet Firm Wants to Find & Stop Spammers

HOUSTON (CN) - An internet marketing firm claims in court that people hacked into its server, swiped "proprietary e-mail customer lists," and are spamming people on the lists.

Marketing Integrale sued Todd Roberson aka Jeff Jeffries dba bestdamnstocks.com and thepennystockguru.com, William William, octbullmarkets.com, and thebullexchange.com, in Federal Court.

Marketing Integrale, a web-based marketing firm incorporated in Quebec, maintains staff in Los Angeles and Houston, according to its complaint.

"The plaintiff is engaged primarily in the creation, editing, dissemination, and management of marketing newsletters for various trade publications and websites, within various industries," the complaint states. "The plaintiff also procures, manages and maintains consumer data and records, inclusive of email lists that it uses in seasonal email opt-in marketing campaigns."

Marketing Integrale says it charges customers for access to its customer lists.

"Upon information and belief, on or around February 18, 2011, unidentified defendants have each/or while in acting in concert by the use of an artifice or scheme, successfully hacked into Marketing Integrale's server's hosted at its primarily servers located in the United States at I-contact (http://www.icontact.com), the complaint states. "Defendants hacked into plaintiff's server in order to gain access, copy, and distribute mail directly to persons on Marketing Integrale's proprietary e-mail customer lists."(Parentheses in complaint.)

Marketing Integrale says the hackers then set up other websites to spam people on its lists.

"Plaintiff seeks to identify the defendants by requesting the court to issue an order granting leave to take immediate discovery, the complaint states. "Upon information and belief, Plaintiff's proprietary data was illegally accessed and stolen from its central corporate servers that are hosted at I-contact. ...

"Plaintiff seeks a court order so it can discover the IP addresses that accessed its I-contact accounts. Plaintiff also seeks information from I-contact to verify whether I-contact 'saved' any of the lists that were obtained or exported. Plaintiff believes that I-contact maintains a log of all IP addresses and exports that access plaintiff's accounts.

"Upon information and belief, defendants registered and/or hosted a website http://wallstreetpennystockadvisors.com, which appears to be a spam website base page, registered at Godaddy.com and hosted by http://www.planetonline.net.

"Plaintiff seeks a court order so it can discover the credit card information and IP addresses of the registered owner and persons accessing the website http://wallstreetpennystockadvisors.com on Godaddy.com, http://www.planetonline.net, or the actual website that registered and hosts that website.

"Upon information and belief, defendants registered and/or hosted a website mynewsletterbuilder.com. Defendants uploaded all, or a substantial portion, of the stolen list on this website to send e-mails.

"Upon information and belief, defendant Does registered and/or hosted a website thepennystockguru.com.

"Upon information and belief, Doe defendants registered this page as gi.net and hosted the site on vortexhost.com. Upon information and belief, defendants used an e-mail provider, campaigner.com to disseminate e-mails to individuals on the stolen e-mail list.

"Plaintiff seeks a court order so it can discover the IP addresses and credit card identifier information of those who registered and used the accounts at the websites listed in this paragraph.

"Upon information and belief, defendants registered and/or hosted a website swalert.com. Upon information and belief, defendants registered this page as enom.com and hosted the site on http://www.planetonline.net. Upon information and belief, defendants used an e-mail provider, ezinedirector.net to disseminate e-mails to individuals on the stolen e-mail list."

Marketing Integrale says the websites operated by defendants "are linked to the Twitter accounts named Sherrybrooks34 and Tracycallies" and "are linked to the Facebook account named adria.robinson.5."

Marketing Integrale seeks an injunction to stop defendants from using their e-mail lists.

It also seeks damages under the Unlawful Access to Stored Communications Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Marketing Integrale is represented by Leonnel Iruke with Empire Legal in Houston.

Follow @cam_langford

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