Kobeni Solutions Fined In Affordable Care Act Spam Lawsuit

Posted by Hadraj Youssef On Tuesday, September 2, 2014 0 Comments
By Rahmah Sajid


Well known in anti-spam circles and occupying the number two spot for worst spammers in the world by the Spamhaus ROKSO, (Register of Known Spam Operations), Kobeni Solutions, or Yair Shalev & Kobeni Inc. were found guilty in a spam lawsuit brought by the FTC. The Federal Trade Commission imposed a fine of $350,000 on Kobeni Solutions in settlement of a spam operation involving the Affordable Care Act, even though they have not admitted or denied guilt.



The Spamhaus Register of Known Spam Operations has been keeping an eye on Yair Shalev and Kobeni Solutions for a while. Kobeni Solutions is considered as the second most active spammer in the world. Yair Shalev apparently partnered with another well-known spammer named Darrin Wohl. He is also the son-in-law of Dan Abramovich, another spammer monitored by the ROKSO.

The Federal Trade Commission fined Yair Shalev for failing to provide recipients with a link they could use to unsubscribe from the emails and also for failing to add a postal address to the emails. Kobeni Solutions was sending emails explaining that recipients should purchase health coverage. Recipients were encouraged to click on a link that would take them to a page filled with ads for insurance companies. Kobeni Solutions denied being aware of the scam but received money from the companies that benefited from the traffic.

The FTC fined Kobeni Solutions $350K as a restitution of ill-gotten money. The company did not admit or deny guilt. The IP addresses used by Yair Shalev are currently on the ROKSO block list.

The ROKSO has been monitoring Yair Shalev and blocking IP addresses used to send spam for years. The FTC finally took action due to the number of recipients affected by the Affordable Care Act spams and due to the profits generated by Kobeni Solutions.

When clicked the links led them to designated websites where advertisements for insurance companies were displayed. The insurance companies involved claim they are completely unaware of the scam, but the website owners paid Shalev and Kobeni for the traffic received.




About the Author:



0 Comments:

Post a Comment