"I wanted to see what it would be like to have sex with another person," "Small Size Is Not Your Verdict!," "Everyone has the ability to GROW." These are just a few of the spam titles sitting in my inbox (or rather, the junk folder attached to my inbox) right now. Some of them even contain photos—ones that might not be looked upon kindly by managers or parents of young children. (Here's the most work-safe one I could find in my e-mail today. Warning: stick figure porn ahead.) Exposing unwitting users to pornography is a no-no, and the FTC has cracked down on at least one X-rated company for doing exactly that with its bulk e-mail marketing.

Cyberheat, Inc. was originally sued in 2005 by the FTC for violating federal laws on "Adult Labeling" in addition to violations of the 2003 CAN-SPAM act. According to the Adult Labeling law, commercial e-mailers of sexually-explicit materials must prefix their e-mail subject lines with "SEXUALLY EXPLICIT:" so that the user can identify the content before opening the message. And of course, according to CAN-SPAM, bulk e-mailers must provide a way for consumers to opt-out—something that most sex-related spam doesn't offer.





Original image Some relatively work-safe porn spam

Cyberheat didn't actually send out the e-mail itself, though—the company hired affiliate marketers to do it instead. Still, the FTC held Cyberheat responsible for the violations because Cyberheat "induced [the affiliates] to send it by offering to pay those who successfully attracted subscribers to its Web sites." Today, the company agreed to settle the lawsuit and pay the FTC $413,000 in civil penalties. It will also closely monitor its affiliates to ensure their future compliance.

This isn't the first X-rated company to get hit with a lawsuit from the FTC. In addition to Cyberheat, the commission sued six other companies in 2005 for the same reasons—five of which settled between then and now. The FTC says that with Cyberheat's "contribution," the combined civil penalties paid by these companies have come to over $1.6 million.