SAN FRANCISCO – An Australian crowdsourcing website alleges thousands of fake member accounts were created with it and has caused it damages.
Freelancer International Pty Limited filed a complaint on Dec. 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Does 1-100 citing the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, breach of contract and other counts.
The plaintiff alleges the defendants have posted spam, unsolicited communications, advertised external websites, products and services and manipulated the fee structure. According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that it has suffered irreparable damages to its business, including harm to its consumer goodwill, loss of users and loss of market share, because of defendants' unlawful activities since December 2010.
The plaintiff holds Does 1-100 responsible because the defendants allegedly caused plaintiff to implement additional technical safeguards to protect against unauthorized access to its website, and increased strain on plaintiff's network servers, and significant human, financial and technical resources.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment in its favor, permanent injunction enjoining and restraining defendants from accessing and posting data, destroy all documents and data obtained from improper use of plaintiff's website, compensatory, statutory, and/or punitive damages, costs of suit, attorney’s fees, interest and other relief as the court deems just. It is represented by Andrew T. Oliver of Amin,Turocy & Watson LLP in San Jose.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Case number 3:16-cv-07070