The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) recently fined a company $350,000 because they illegally scammed unsuspecting consumers in regard to a deadline for The Affordable Care Act. The company, an email marketing company named Kobeni, Inc., mailed a message to consumers telling them that they needed to click a link immediately to avoid paying a fine for Obamacare because they had a deadline.
Yair Shalev's company, based in Hollywood, Florida, apparently sent emails with content that deceived recipients regarding false deadlines supposedly set by the ACA (Affordable Care Act), or better known as Obamacare. The emails were sent during the rollout of the ACA and contained false warnings that recipients who had not yet joined would be in violation of the law if they did not immediately click to enroll in an insurance plan. The emails included links to websites that displayed advertisements from insurance companies. Although the proprietors of these websites paid Kobeni Inc. for traffic received by the email scam, the FTC found that they were not directly involved and were not aware of the fact that it was a scam.
Most of the consumers received no value for their efforts because, first of all, there was no deadline yet at that time, that was of any consequence, and the companies were not set up to market The Affordable Care Act at that time, so there was no benefit at all to the consumer. In January of 2014, Kobini was charged with the violation of the FTC Act because of their spreading of deceptive information regarding the legal deadlines regarding the ACA and of the violation of the CAN-SPAM Act by not offering a way for people to opt out of the emails.
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.
Yair Shalev's company, based in Hollywood, Florida, apparently sent emails with content that deceived recipients regarding false deadlines supposedly set by the ACA (Affordable Care Act), or better known as Obamacare. The emails were sent during the rollout of the ACA and contained false warnings that recipients who had not yet joined would be in violation of the law if they did not immediately click to enroll in an insurance plan. The emails included links to websites that displayed advertisements from insurance companies. Although the proprietors of these websites paid Kobeni Inc. for traffic received by the email scam, the FTC found that they were not directly involved and were not aware of the fact that it was a scam.
Most of the consumers received no value for their efforts because, first of all, there was no deadline yet at that time, that was of any consequence, and the companies were not set up to market The Affordable Care Act at that time, so there was no benefit at all to the consumer. In January of 2014, Kobini was charged with the violation of the FTC Act because of their spreading of deceptive information regarding the legal deadlines regarding the ACA and of the violation of the CAN-SPAM Act by not offering a way for people to opt out of the emails.
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.
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