Sellers of Phone Verified Accounts, Fights Posting Spam — Craigslist Sues

Classifieds site goes following firm selling “phone verified accounts” and helping people auto-post to Craiglist.org.

Craigslist has sued a Colorado man and associated businesses for helping people circumvent tools created to block spam on its site.

The online classifieds site claims the defendants offer services that make it easier for people to submit automated postings to Craiglist, against the sites terms of service. It alleges that the defendants sell “phone verified accounts” to make it easier for people to circumvent Craigslist’s spam protection features.

As stated by Craigslist, the defendants frequently change the domain names where it offers its services following Craigslist sends them demand letters.

Some of the defendants sites are 3monthPVAs.com and Craigslist-verifiedaccounts.com.

3monthPVAs.com offers phone verified accounts for as little as $3.50 each. The site states “[w]e have good connections within the telecomm network so we use real landlines and real IP addresses.”

Craigslist.org states the defendants falsified their domain name registration info to hide their identities.

Among the claims are violation of the DMCA, trademark infringement, and breach of contract for violating Craigslist’s terms of service.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.