Forum Spam- Is it possible to prosecute the spammers?

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JulissaHolly

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I am a moderator on the forum section of Artemis Fowl FanGathering. It's an international childrens' website dedicated to the Artemis Fowl series. We have been getting spam in massive quantites on the forum, and I was wondering if it would be possible for us to prosecute the spammers. We have records of the actions taken to remove the spam, and I'm fairly certain we also have records of the IP addresses belonging to the spammers (I'm not a global mod, so I'm not sure.). If not, such records could be obtained during the next wave of spam.
We have the deleting part well under control, but is it possible for us to take legal action against the people spamming our forum?
 
Spammers have been successfully prosecuted, but it is not at all an easy or cheap process. You need to know who to sue. IP addresses are not necessarily indicative of who specifically spammed you if a public or corporate computer was used. It may end up not being particularly cost effective. Additionally, you may find that many of the IP addresses are not based in the US.

I'm by no means unsympathetic. I moderate three forums, including this one, and all three either do or have in the past gotten massive amounts of spam. But discuss with an attorney whether or not this is a viable option.
 
I know there is a law against spamming email, is there a law against spamming forums?
 
Ah, very good point. I know there have been successful suits against spammers, but I don't recall specifically hearing what they were spamming!
 
A moderator wouldn't have any standing on the issue anyway. It would be up to the owner of the website.
Contact the owner with your frustrations. They can either block the IP from which the spam comes, utilize software that deters spammers, or seek legal options if it is really that bad.
 
We have set up something here that would allow us to prosecute spammers. Do you know where they are? At least on this forum, the overwhelming majority come from India. American businesses pay XYZ company for marketing who, in turn, pay these people in India to publicize their business. So whom do I sue? How much money might I recover that would make it worth it for me to sue? Additionally, how do I stop the problem from reoccurring?

It's a little more challenging on a law board that deals with international issues. But if your forum and topic is mostly of interest to a few countries, you can set your forum (or domain) to reject entire countries or continents. We have been considering doing that here. on several dating sites I've administrated I've banned several African countries where the spam to account ration is at or very near 100% and responsible for 99% of the site spam. Your remedy might be technical, not legal even though there is a potential issue that could be litigated.
 
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