Fax Attack This entrepreneur's fighting mad about junk faxes.

Steve Kirsch doesn't work in the fax machine industry, butyou could be forgiven for thinking so. Kirsch, 47, owns SanJose-based Propel Software Corp., a 50-employee,multimillion-dollar company allowing PC users to inexpensivelyspeed up their dial-up connection service. In his spare time,he's taking on companies that send unsolicited faxes. Andhe's doing it in a big way, filing a $2.2 trillion class-actionlawsuit against Fax.com (he's still waiting for class-actioncertification before he can sue). Kirsch is so vehemently opposedto junk faxes that he created a Web site dedicated to eliminatingthe problem (www.junkfax.org).

How did this start?

Steve Kirsch: In December2001, I received a fax at my office about how I could repair mycredit for $59. I had received similar faxes a month earlier,offering the same credit-
repair course for $39. Then I received a duplicate fax two minuteslater. It really pissed me off. I did some research and learned the800 numbers on the faxes belong to Fax.com.