Israeli spam! Who do I contact?

[Shachar Shemesh]

Dotan Cohen wrote:
>
> A representative of the company called me back, she is very concerned
> about the incident. It was a third-party advertising agency that sent
> the spam and the rep sounds _angry_. As my goal is to fight spam in
> Israel, and not to make a quick shekel, I am more than happy to help
> her check internally what had happened. It looks like the third party
> advertising agency is to blame, and the company rep want to give it to
> them hard.
>
>   
That is fine. Still, you know rule no. 1: spammers lie.

As far as formal procedure goes, you cannot abide by what she tells you. 
Even if what she tells you is the truth as it is, you cannot sue the 
spamming agency, as you are not a party to their internal procedures. As 
far as I can see, what you can do is one of three things:

   1. Drop the whole case, under the assumption that merely by getting
      the client angry at their advertising agency you have done enough
      to curb further spam.
   2. Ask them to pay you in exchange for all of your collected evidence
      (mainly the actual email) and your willingness to be a witness in
      case they choose to sue the advertising agency (and they are more
      likely to win if they have already paid you, as this is actual out
      of pocket damage to them, not a theoretical statutory damage).
   3. Either sue both them and the advertising agency, or just them and
      recommend to them that they add the advertising agency as a third
      party to the suite. If small claims allows a defendant to add
      third parties, this may actually be cheaper for them than option
      2. A business is not allowed to sue in small claims, but if you,
      as an individual, sue in small claims, the business may be able to
      add a third party.

The advantage of options 2 and 3 is that it does not require of you to 
decide whether the company representative is telling you the truth or 
not (rule no. 1 again).

Again, not a lawyer.

Shachar

-- 
Shachar Shemesh
Lingnu Open Source Consulting Ltd.
http://www.lingnu.com

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