A bulk mailing company headed by notorious spammer Scott Richter has won a restraining order against anti-spam reporting service SpamCop.

Following an order by a Northern California District Court judge on Monday SpamCop is obliged to temporarily stop reporting complaints about Richter's company, OptinRealBig.com, to third-party ISPs. The order will apply until 20 May, when the two companies are scheduled to appear in court. SpamCop is fighting the main action but it failed to oppose the temporary restraining order.

OptInRealBig brought a legal action against SpamCop and parent company IronPort last month, alleging that SpamCop interfered with OptInRealBig's contracts and business relationships, affected its ability to make money and bad-mouthed the company. Ironport acquired SpamCop last November. SpamCop contacts the abuse desks of ISPs in response to reports of spam from Web users. The email address of complainants is withheld, a point of issue in OptInRealBig's law suit.

Richter, OptInRealBig's president, is on the receiving end of a December lawsuit from New York's Attorney General and Microsoft for allegedly sending "billions of illegal and deceptive e-mail messages". Spamhaus names Richter and OptInRealBig as the world's ninth most prolific spam operation in its Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO). Richter, branded by critics as the "Spam King", also appears in second spot in the list, thanks to the work of Wholesalebandwidth. ®

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