"Lonely housewives" banged up

A SPAM OUTIFT claiming to link up punters with lonely housewives has been penetrated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and sent packing.

A spokesman for the FTC said the regulator had got a court order shutting down California-based Cleverlink Trading, Real World Media, and their owners, Brian Muir, Jesse Goldberg and Caleb Wolf Wickman.

The outfits ran more than 180 websites, including wantmorebabes.com, hotobjectofdesire.biz, maxfulltime.info, wiveswhocheat69.biz and hookuptomorrow.com. Apparently the sites were designed to make the recipients believe they came from an internet dating service containing lonely housewives who want casual sexual relationships.

However it was all a cunning plan to get customers to buy access to defendants' main membership site, which cost a bomb.

According to Japan Today, the whole thing was netting Muir, Goldberg and Wickman nearly $700,000 in membership fees, the FTC said.

More here. µ