14 DAY TRIAL // A firm from the United Stated is in trouble with the law after they had used a spam campaign to advertise their pharmaceutical products. The Federal Trade Commission has temporarily issued a restraining order against the Nevada-based Sili Neutraceuticals LLC and owner Brian McDaid, doing business as Kaycon Ltd., earlier this month, as NetworkWorld informs us.
Now, what these guys were doing were two things: selling placebo-drugs and developing a spam campaign to advertise for their products. Thing is, the FTC issued an act some time ago, called "Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act" (CAN-SPAM for short). So, when the company sent unwanted e-mails to various users in order to advertise their bogus products, they were violating this law. What's even worse is the fact that people that were tricked by this huge spam campaign were scammed as well, just not via the usual spam-scam campaign. The products the firm was selling have been reported as good for nothing, as NetworkWorld informs.
Spam is annoying but selling hoax products is something really nasty. I read an article some time ago about a company that was doing the same thing. When the people bought the spoof drugs, some became ill and at least one died. So, this is dangerous business! If you receive an e-mail from some pharmaceutical site you did not subscribe to, please ignore their advertising message, you might not know what you're getting into.
In any case, the FTC is on this and the company's assets have been frozen for now, at least. If you get such spam e-mails I recommend that you report it to an authority, not only for violating the CAN-SPAM Act, but also because their drugs might put people in danger.
As according to NetworkWorld, this is the first time the FTC files a case against spammers using this tactic, fact which is a good thing, if you ask me. Anti-spam laws are bound to get spam levels down, since some spammers might fear the consequences.