Notice of Violation: Sami Medouni

File No.: 9110-2021-00606

To: Sami Medouni

Issue Date of Notice: 11 July 2023

Summary of investigation

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is responsible for the administration of sections 6 to 46 of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (the Act ^Footnote1 ), and the Electronic Commerce Enforcement (ECE) division of the Commission investigates potential violations pursuant to the Act.

In March 2021, CRTC staff launched an investigation into a series of high-volume phishing campaigns and potential violations of paragraph 6(1)(a) of the Act.

Paragraph 6(1)(a) of the Act states that it is prohibited to send or cause or permit to be sent to an electronic address a commercial electronic message (CEM) unless the person to whom the message is sent has consented to receiving it, whether the consent is express or implied.

Pursuant to section 22 of the Act, a notice of violation has been served on Sami Medouni for committing six violations of paragraph 6(1)(a) of the Act.

Between 22 December 2020 and 14 January 2021, Sami Medouni sent or caused or permitted to be sent at least 31,925 phishing Commercial Electronic Messages (CEMs) without the consent of recipients, from fraudulently obtained telephone numbers.

Specifically, Sami Medouni sent the following commercial electronic messages without express or implied consent by using six different telephone numbers:

• 13,285 CEMs on 22 December, 2020;
• 18,138 CEMS between 22 and 23 December, 2020; and
• 502 CEMS on 14 January 2021.

In accordance with section 13 of the Act ^Footnote2 , the person who sends a CEM has the onus of proving that consent was obtained. There was no evidence obtained during the investigation to indicate that Sami Medouni obtained the necessary consent to send CEMs.

Information and evidence to support this investigation were gathered from multiple sources, including Notices to Produce pursuant to section 17 of the Act, and provided reasonable grounds to believe that, by using six separate phone numbers, Sami Medouni sent 31,925 CEMs without consent, representing six violations of paragraph 6(1)(a) of the Act.

Based on the information gathered in the investigation, the Director of the Electronic Commerce Enforcement division has issued a Notice of Violation, imposing an administrative monetary penalty of $40,000 to Sami Medouni.

Date modified:

2023-07-11