Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Arizona

Re: Spammers using actual email return address on our domain

You have my sympathy. This is a never-ending problem for anyone with a domain name who puts email information out there (the same thing happens regularly to me, and it is a pain in the ...).

I have two suggestions, neither of which involves legal action. First, notify your ISP of the problem, send them a copy of a spammer's email that includes all of the headers and ask if they can help (they often can by blocking IP addresses in the spam's email rather than the return address of the email; the IP addresses are different in the spam than they are in the emails you wish to receive).

Also, there is a service on the web called SpamCop that specializes in taking care of spammers (www.spamcop.com), and they're pretty good. You might check them out.

In terms of taking legal action against a spammer, first you have to physically find them, which is usually the problem, since they very often ride piggy-back on other (innocent) people's email accounts and they bounce around the web much faster than any court has the ability to follow. If you can do that, then (assuming they're somewhere in the US) yes, you may be able to sue them in equity to get them to back off of using your email accounts for their noxous activities. If the spammer is outside of the US, then you may be able to sue under their country's laws, for which you would need an attorney admitted in that country.

Good luck!

If I can be of further assistance, please give my office a call.

Nancy Delain

Admitted in NY

THE INFORMATION PRESENTED HERE IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND IS NOT INTENDED, NOR SHOULD IT BE CONSTRUED, AS LEGAL ADVICE. FOR SPECIFIC ADVICE ABOUT YOUR PARTICULAR SITUATION, CONSULT YOUR ATTORNEY.