Hoodia spammer settles
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
The Federal Trade Commission accepts a settlement with hoodia marketers charged under the U.S. Safe Web Act with making "false and unsubstantiated" claims about their products through spam e-mails, according to a July 15 release. In an October 2007 complaint, FTC said Wyoming-based Spear Systems falsely claimed its products - falsely marketed as hoodia - enabled rapid, permanent weight loss, and the firm's promotional e-mails violated the CAN-SPAM Act by including deceptive subject lines and lacking an opt-out link (1"The Tan Sheet" Oct. 15, 2007, p. 13). Under the terms of the settlement, Spear Systems must surrender $29,000 in alleged ill-gotten gains...