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MGD
Premium,MVM
join:2002-07-31
Fort Lauderdale, FL
| reply to threatened
Re: online threat
As far fetched as it may seem, I presume that this is the entire story, and that there are no more relevant details. ?
First off, that message sounds more like extortion than anything else. If the facts are as you stated, and there are no additional issues, then the sender / site admin is an IDIOT.
I do not believe for a moment that:
quote:
"My lawyer on the behalf of myself has used our website to harvest evidence for a lawsuit against you. The lawyer has sent a subpoena for your information to.."
The primary reason for that is, it would be obvious to any first year law student, based on those facts, that there was not even a remote violation of that law.
The law addresses Spam, "unsolicited commercial e-mail".
quote:
The new law requires that senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail include a subject line reading “ADV:” as the first four characters of the subject line, certain contact information, and a valid method for consumers to opt out of receiving future emails. The sender also would be required to establish and maintain the necessary policies and records to ensure that a recipient who opted out of receiving e-mail solicitations does not receive future spam.
What your son did was hit "reply all" in error. There was not even an "intent" to spam. The real act of malfeasance occurred when the idiot site admin sent email that exposed all the member's addresses. He must be totally clueless. At most I would offer to buy him a copy of "Email for Dummies", and underline the BCC section.
I can assure you that no lawyer has reviewed, participated in, nor sanctioned that message that was sent.
quote:
...Also you could be required to surrender your computer along with any personal devices that may contain information in the event we receive a search warrant.
Total and absolute BS, search warrants are issued to law enforcement based on probable cause, not to private individuals. He is now impersonating a police officer.
quote:
....There is only one way at this point for me to stop this process, and that would be to make a $500 USD donation to our forum, issue an apology, ....
He may characterize the demand for $500 as a donation, however, law enforcement may consider that a crime, especially in this context. When that clueless admin is finished re reading the anti spam statute, he may want to swing by and read the criminal statues on extortion.
quote:
...and surrender the e-mail addresses you captured.....
What an idiot, how does one "surrender" an intangible, give him a copy of the email list back and keep two. "Captured" ..... the idiot sent them to you, there was no capture, it is called receiving.
At this stage I would not bother LE on such a trivial issue. You, as the parent of a minor may want to reply pointing out his stupidity in sending the original email in a CC format. Also, that H.B. 4519 is not even remotely applicable in this case, and his request for $500 may even be a crime. Especially if there is no record now of a subpoena already issued. He has stated that this is already done. If untrue, then that supports that the $500 demand is extortion.
quote:
Extortion:
The actual obtainment of money or property is not required to commit the offense. Making a threat of violence or a lawsuit which refers to a requirement of a payment of money or property to halt future violence or lawsuit is sufficient to commit the offense.
If he were to obtain a subpoena for your ISP records, you would be notified in advance by the ISP, and given an opportunity to contest the subpoena before any data is turned over. Only at that point would I consider the expense of legal advice. I am willing to wager that he has not even consulted with a lawyer, never mind making any attempt to obtain a subpoena. Again, I guarantee you that any lawyer would have cautioned him against sending that demmand message. It is the admin pretending to be one, and a bad one at that.
There really should be minimum IQ levels required before anyone is allowed to host a forum.
For the record...,IANAL, This is my opinion based on the facts that you have described, and does not constitute legal advice.
MGD | |
threatened
@server4you.de
| I found my kid's email to the guy. Looks like my kid wasn't quite telling the truth about "accidentally" hitting the reply-to-all button. But I also have the original email the guy sent to my kid and all of the replies he has sent since.
Also, my kid was wrong about the "cc", it was "To" with all of the members addresses which is worse than "cc".
original email with over 100 addresses in the "to" column:
Hey there, Our latest offer for YOU: FREE SITE DECALS* and much more!! » www.themazdaforum.comI just wanted to drop you a personal e-mail- I haven't seen you stop by in over a month. We've been hard at work to create an awesome place and I think we've done that. A few cool things we have: vBGarage- show off your ride to all of the members on board! vBArcade- bored? Stop by the arcade and challenge other members! We've had a lot of new members sign up and have some vendors that have some HUGE specials on brakes, oil change parts, and more- so stop on by! We also have a few clubs that now call our board home, so check that out too. If you're interested in having your own forum, write back and let me know. I can't wait to see you over on TMF- the place just isn't the same without all our members around. Why else would I waste my time if you weren't important? YOU'RE important to me and all the other members- please stop by and post and say hi! If there is ANYTHING that would improve our forum, let me know! Patrick *Site decals offer: Free one color decals with paid donation ($10 or more) for more information, visit themazdaforum.com
To: registrar@themazdaforum.com
date Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 10:33 PM
subject Re: I need you! Where did you go?
Reply
I wonder why you sent out everybody's email address. Don't some people like to keep their info private? Maybe you should learn about bcc instead of cc in your emails.
I replied to all of the people who you have included in your email to me just so they know they lost any privacy they thought they had on your site.
Sad way to conduct business. 2nd email from mazdaforum:
Was it really necessary for you to make the situation worse by sending
mail to every user?
It was an unfortunate mistake with the vBulletin software we're
running, but to make matters worse, without contacting me first, you
went ahead and sent unsolicited e-mail to everyone you choose?
What is your reasoning behind this? Then came the threats.
Thanks for your insight. | |
MGD
Premium,MVM
join:2002-07-31
Fort Lauderdale, FL
| Well, Kudos for digging into this further, that certainly adds some perspective to it. So the admin is pissed off because your son did a reply all. He clearly admits screwing up by sending open to all. Yes, the proper thing to do was to notify the admin of his obvious mistake. All the other recipients will already know from the delivery format that the list was open. Your son made an error in good judgement. The admin made several errors in good judgement. There still was no violation of the HB 5915, and I do not believe the original message. He is pissed off at having his nose rubbed in it. A reasonable and intelligent response should end this.
Again, thanks for getting the whole story, that says a lot about your integrity.
MGD | |
threatened
@server4you.de
| Kids don't always tell the truth to their parents. Shocking, I know. When my kid told me the story I asked him 5 times to repeat it and show me the emails. Well, he showed me the ones he wanted me to see. I use SentryAtHome Parental Controls to check on his web usage and I backtracked all of his surfing and found his gmails. He then gave me his laptop and I found all of the original emails that the mazdaforum and my kid sent back and forth. One of the funny things is that the mazda guy has my son's best friend's isp info because he signed up on the forum during a laptop gaming party at his friend's house.
Both of them are wrong but the adult forum owner should not have threatened my kid especially after my kid told him he was only 15 years old. My kid said the forum sucked so bad he never even posted there.
Thanks for your replies and your answers to my questions. | |
MGD
Premium,MVM
join:2002-07-31
Fort Lauderdale, FL
| said by threatened :
....Both of them are wrong but the adult forum owner should not have threatened my kid especially after my kid told him he was only 15 years old. My kid said the forum sucked so bad he never even posted there.
Thanks for your replies and your answers to my questions.
You are welcome, and I agree. Your son being upset that the admin revealed his and all the members email addresses is valid.
You may be generous in classifying the admin as an adult. The most egregious event here was that message that he sent. That fabrication and ultimatum for money, in writing no less, could land him in a lot of trouble.
MGD | |
xmrocks
I like Sirius Better
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-23
clubs:  
| reply to threatened
It sounds like a lot of BS and I'd just ignore it rather than get into some e-mail war with the site admin and just get everyone's blood pressure rising!
Furthermore, the e-mail the site admin sent out was not CAN SPAM Compliant. He sent it to all registered users who presumably opted-in via the vBulletin form registration. That's fine, but his e-mail has a somewhat deceptive subject line and he doesn't include a physical postal address for subscribers to opt-out.
Also as MGD  stated, it needs to be clearly labelled as an advertisement.
Tell the site admin to become more familiar with the CAN SPAM Act as he is registered in the U.S.  »www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/bus···pam.shtm
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MotherNature
Chile peppers are my heroin
Premium
join:2002-08-23
Fontana, CA | reply to threatened
Time to reel in a few of his privileges for not being up front with you. | |
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