Marketers Who Sent Millions of Spam Texts Are Permanently Barred from Further Scams

After sending consumers more than 30 million deceptive spam text messages promising gift cards, free iPhones and iPads and failing to deliver on the promised offers, a group of affiliate marketers agreed with the Federal Trade Commission to an order, entered in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, that bars future misconduct (FTC v. Ecommerce Merchants, LLC, N.D. Ill., No. 1:13-cv-01534).

The court Nov. 20 issued a stipulated final judgment and order against the four individual defendants—Cresta Pillsbury, Jan-Paul Diaz, Joshua Brewer and Daniel Stanitski—and a default judgment against their company, Ecommerce Merchants, ...