Chicago Tribune | Man Sues Firm Over Unsolicited E-Mails:
"A man from Washington state has accused a western Pennsylvania telemarketer of sending him hundreds of unsolicited e-mails and has sued the company under his state's anti-spam law.

In a complaint filed in his home state court last month, Jim Gordon of Richland, Wash., said he wants Commonwealth Marketing Group Inc. of Hopwood, Fayette County, to pay him $500 for each piece of spam the company allegedly sent him. According to Gordon, that adds up to more than $600,000 for more than 1,200 messages. "

"My motivation is to get this spam stopped," Gordon told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for a story in Sunday editions. "I sent them a letter saying stop. And they didn't."

Gordon's lawsuit focuses on a Washington law that prohibits the sending of deceptive or misleading e-mails. Gordon's suit also was filed under two other Washington laws governing unfair business practices and harassment.

CMG's e-mails were "designed to entice" him to believe he was applying for a major credit card, such as a VISA or MasterCard, Gordon said. But CMG was really offering its own products and credit.

In his lawsuit, Gordon also accused CMG of using invalid addresses in violation of state law. He received messages from 551 different senders, which he eventually traced to the company, Gordon said.…

Gordon said he sent a letter to CMG in August, saying he had received 27 unsolicited e-mails from the company and demanding a check for $10,800, or $400 for each message. The letter threatened that Gordon would bump up the fee up to $500 per e-mail and would contact the Washington attorney general if he didn't hear from CMG officials in a few weeks.

"If payment has not been received by 5 p.m. on Sept. 12, 2003, I will conclude that an out-of-court settlement is not possible," the letter said.

Gordon has also demanded money from three other companies that he said spammed him.…

http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/sns-ap-spam-suit.story