Life imitates art333

[Scot Harkins on SCN.org]

Oh, yes, anything worth doing is worth doing large.  This would be a
sizeable civil case.

I said earlier taking a lawyer on "commission", but I'm really looking for
the right word (duh!), which is, I think, "contingent", as in "contingent
upon receiving payment from any money recovered as a result of the lawsuit."

Thanks to Karyn's posting we have the details of who to sue: Benchmark Print
Supply, 7540 Bridgegate Court, Atlanta, Georgia, 30350-4603, 770-399-0953.
Note that the listing in USWestDex.com shows them as "Benchmark Print Supply
and Laser" on 1091 Redstone Lane, Dunwoody, Georgia, 30338-2637,
770-399-5038.

Here's the things this tells us: this is an established business by virtue
of the fact that they've been around long enough to have a listing in an
on-line directory.  Their address, while different, is apparently in the
same area.  I determined that by the prefix (770-399).  I called the order
number and asked the person who answered if this was the store on Redstone
Street (the address I got from USWestDex) and she said yes.  I asked her the
hours and she said they're open 10am to 6pm today.

Okay, so we know they're real and established.  What else do we know?  How
many separate instances came in and how many lists did they hit per
instance?  How many final deliveree's?  I don't have the root password right
now so I can't hunt the files myself for the message ID's.  I presume we
have archival copies from each list by which to compare how many lists were
targeted by how many instances.

What might really be going on here?  Most likely this business did one of
two things.  They hired someone to advertise their products on the internet,
and that party is the one that used spamming techniques.  Alternately,
someone at the business obtained spamming software and set about delivering
advertisements.  A third possibility is that this was done by a former
employee with malicious intent, although that's less likely since the ad
could generate actual sales, thus defeating his/her purpose, though the spam
backlash would certainly hurt.

No, but wait!  A search on www.dogpile.com reveals that Benchmark Print
Supply is a famous spammer.  Washington State has a lawsuit filed against
Benchmark (and the owner, Sam Khuri) in King County Superior Court.  This is
for using misleading subject lines and falsified header lines.  It is being
processed under RCW 19.86, the Unfair Business Practices-Consumer Protection
Act and RCW 19.190, the Unsolicited Electronic Mail Act.

There are many other sites naming Benchmark as a notorious spammer.  Mister
Khuri seems to continue his operation in spite of a pending lawsuit.  He
does have a domain name registered; laserdepot.com, which does map to an IP
address, but the machine appears, sadly, to be down.  There is also a domain
"benchmarkprintsupply.com" registered under the company name "Benchmark
Print Supply Must Die".  It doesn't work, either, though I'm sure it would
be entertaining to say the least.

Well, at this point, we're still down to how many messages.  We may also
wish to contact the Attorney General's office regarding our situation and
how it might relate to their lawsuit.  If we have enough to go on we may
wish to pursue a judgement.  Enforcement of a judgement, however, may be a
challenge that defeats any lawsuit we may win.  We may end up with paper
that says he owes us, but can we collect?  That's another question for the
AGO.

So there we go.  Now we know.  What say you?


Scot

Scot Harkins (KA5KDU) | Systems Administrator, Thurman Ind, Bothell, WA
North Bend, WA        | Native Texan firmly planted in Western Washington
scoth at bigfoot.com     | SCA: Ld. Scot MacFin, Barony of Madrone, An Tir
scoth at scn.org/msn.com | URL <http://www.bigfoot.com/~scoth>

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