AOL Sues Local Firm Over Alleged Mortgage Lending Spam

ORLANDO-In the first federal lawsuit of its kind in the metropolitan area which alleges a commercial real estate involvement, America Online is seeking $1.6 million in damages from a local computer software firm and three area individuals over an alleged mortgage-lending spam blitz covering a nine-month period in 2003.

AOL’s suit alleges Connor Miller Software Inc. of suburban Winter Garden, FL; Charles Henry Miller Jr. and his wife, Heidi Miller, also both of Winter Garden; and James Connor of Longwood, FL conspired with Jonathan Beyer and Joseph Conrad of Thailand to transmit at least 35 million e-mails pitching low-rate mortgages.

The suit alleges the Millers and Connor were paid $4,000 a month to maintain computer equipment that was used by Beyer and Conrad to send text files to the Winter Garden company’s offices from where the junk e-mail was routed to AOL mail servers in Virginia. By using this strategy, the suit alleges the defendants bypassed AOL spam filters and the e-mails were distributed to millions of AOL subscribers.