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Ralph Penton is one of the angriest people I've ever interviewed. And if the story he tells is remotely true, he has every right to be as outraged as he sounds.

Penton claims he received a torrent of harassing phone calls — including death threats — because of a blog post by Jerry Baker of Monrovia, CA.

Penton and his online pharmaceuticals marketing company Health Solutions Network are suing Baker, alleging defamation, tortious interference with contracts, restraint of trade, trademark infringement and dilution, fraud, and harassment by phone.

“I will not stop until I bankrupt this guy,” says Penton. “Guys like this are as dangerous as spammers.”

Just before Christmas, someone writing under the name Jerry Baker published a post headlined “Tracking Down a Spammer” on the blog Miscellaneous Debris. In the post, the writer claimed his investigation into who was behind some spam he said he received from RXCart.org led him to Penton, CEO of Health Solutions Network.

“I call the [bleep] up and tell him that I am receiving a lot of spam advertising his Web site and he hangs up,” read the blog post.

The rant included Penton's home phone number. As a result, Penton says, he was harassed for days and even received death threats.

“He ruined my family's Christmas,” Penton says.

“His first phone call to me was a foul, vulgar oration,” he continues, adding that the calls came repeatedly “well into the morning.”

In response to the post, Penton's lawyer published a comment on the blog claiming Health Solutions Network never was affiliated with RXCart.org.

“In the case you cite in your blog, you have found HSN because the clever spammer wanted you to,” wrote Louis Petriello, Health Solutions Network's lawyer. “While your steps to ‘track down a spammer’ may seem clever and diligent, you have been duped into believing that a legal, U.S.-based company is behind the spam.”

Businesses generally aren't known to be brave litigants. Usually they quietly settle, hoping the dispute will go away.

But if Penton is telling the truth, the blogger in this case essentially attacked his family.

Vigilante efforts to expose the identities of the people behind bulk unsolicited e-mail aren't new. Some anti-spammers have even posted photos of suspected spammers' homes online.

Lynch mobs always end up hurting innocent people. And if the anti-spam community's zealot wing doesn't stop its crusade to “out” individuals, it's only a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt.

Here's hoping Penton and the folks at Omega stay angry and don't back down.

Magilla Marketing, Ken Magill's weekly e-mail newsletter, is archived at http://directmag.com/magill/.