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View Full Version : 1 top 10 world's worst spammers behind bars



samnwck
May 31st, 2007, 12:23 PM
Quoted by Yahoo.com

SEATTLE - A 27-year-old man described as one of the world's most prolific spammers was arrested Wednesday, and federal authorities said computer users across the Web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk e-mail.
Robert Alan Soloway is accused of using networks of compromised "zombie" computers to send out millions upon millions of spam e-mails.
"He's one of the top 10 spammers in the world," said Tim Cranton, a Microsoft Corp. lawyer who is senior director of the company's Worldwide Internet Safety Programs. "He's a huge problem for our customers. This is a very good day."
A federal grand jury last week returned a 35-count indictment against Soloway charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering.
Soloway pleaded not guilty Wednesday afternoon to all charges after a judge determined that — even with four bank accounts seized by the government — he was sufficiently well off to pay for his own lawyer.
He has been living in a ritzy apartment and drives an expensive Mercedes convertible, said prosecutor Kathryn Warma. Prosecutors are seeking to have him forfeit $773,000 they say he made from his business, Newport Internet Marketing Corp.
A public defender who represented him for Wednesday's hearing declined to comment.
Prosecutors say Soloway used computers infected with malicious code to send out millions of junk e-mails since 2003. The computers are called "zombies" because owners typically have no idea their machines have been infected.
He continued his activities even after Microsoft won a $7 million civil judgment against him in 2005 and the operator of a small Internet service provider in Oklahoma won a $10 million judgment, prosecutors said.
U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan said Wednesday that the case is the first in the country in which federal prosecutors have used identity theft statutes to prosecute a spammer for taking over someone else's Internet domain name. Soloway could face decades in prison, though prosecutors said they have not calculated what guideline sentencing range he might face.
The investigation began when the authorities began receiving hundreds of complaints about Soloway, who had been featured on a list of known spammers kept by The Spamhaus Project, an international anti-spam organization.
The Santa Barbara County, Calif., Department of Social Services said it was spending $1,000 a week to fight the spam it was receiving, and other businesses and individuals complained of having their reputations damaged when it appeared spam was originating from their computers.
"This is not just a nuisance. This is way beyond a nuisance," Warma said.
Soloway used the networks of compromised computers to send out unsolicited bulk e-mails urging people to use his Internet marketing company to advertise their products, authorities said.
People who clicked on a link in the e-mail were directed to his Web site. There, Soloway advertised his ability to send out as many as 20 million e-mail advertisements over 15 days for $495, the indictment said.
The Spamhaus Project rejoiced at his arrest.
"Soloway has been a long-term nuisance on the Internet — both in terms of the spam he sent, and the people he duped to use his spam service," organizers wrote on Spamhaus.org.
Soloway remained in federal detention pending a hearing Monday.

p0lar_bear
May 31st, 2007, 12:28 PM
Good news, good news.

Emmzee
May 31st, 2007, 02:03 PM
Awesome.

TeeKup
May 31st, 2007, 02:10 PM
Wow, talk about owned.

blazedelite
May 31st, 2007, 02:28 PM
thank god we got some of them off the internet

Agamemnon
May 31st, 2007, 03:06 PM
Rossmum is #1 on that list.

Abdurahman
May 31st, 2007, 04:55 PM
Rossmum is #1 on that list.

LOL!:XD:

Btd69
May 31st, 2007, 04:58 PM
Let's burn him, in an epic style.. to use his words :)

Mr Buckshot
May 31st, 2007, 06:45 PM
He should have his fingers cut off and he should never be allowed to touch a computer again.

Stealth
May 31st, 2007, 06:53 PM
Oh, I remember getting a email that was miss speeled, it was like www.tech,com or something like that, and then after, on every Yahoo group I was a member of there was the same Email spam thingy with that link in it, and it said it was posted by me, I removed it, warned people not to open click on the link. I hate Spam mail, I get so many of it, it's stupid.

Atty
May 31st, 2007, 07:38 PM
I haven't gotten spam mail since Gmail launched. :)

Elite Killa
May 31st, 2007, 08:01 PM
For the sake of human society, this is considerably awesome news.

Stealth
May 31st, 2007, 08:16 PM
yes, it means that there is one less Email Spamer. and one more group of people to save the idots. >.>

Rob Oplawar
May 31st, 2007, 08:19 PM
God damn that's good to hear.
And yet I'm still getting shitloads of spam... /sigh. I need to quit procrastinating and get a spam filter.

Stealth
May 31st, 2007, 08:29 PM
lmfao, I use yahoo mail, I have 3 yahoo acounts, one was a test, which I was signing up for at school, and forgot the password, the 2nd was my real email address for some time, then.... I started getting lots of spam mail, so I made me a 3rd, I use my 3rd one more then my 2nd, and once a month I'll get 5 or less spam mail, and when I do, I mark it as spam. Yahoo is good at filtering Spam mail, but you'll stil get some, and if you mark it as spam, it'll go on a list of addresses to block, and you'll never get an email from that address again.

Mr Buckshot
May 31st, 2007, 08:32 PM
Sad part is, spam tends to advertise itself as a stupid and untrue email (look at the grammar mistakes; often, 5-10 copies of the same email arrive at once). Yet, there are morons who believe the spam and click on the links, etc.

The fact that spammers prosper proves how sadly moronic people can be.

Stealth
May 31st, 2007, 08:36 PM
yes, like I said before...

and one more group of people to save the idots. >.>
did you know, that if you remove all rules, all of the idots would die off?:rolleyes:

p0lar_bear
May 31st, 2007, 10:52 PM
Now all we need to do is blow up Nigeria, and all of the spammers will be gone.

rossmum
June 1st, 2007, 03:19 AM
Hahaha, my dad used to get so many of those Nigerian prince/businessman/whatever scam spams. I haven't got any spam since I switched ISP and took my main email address over with my net. :D

Very good news.

Moses
July 21st, 2008, 03:44 AM
This is why i use an email no one i know uses. the extension is hush.ai :-P

ultama121
July 21st, 2008, 03:51 AM
A bit of a bump there Moses. :lol:

ExAm
July 21st, 2008, 04:15 AM
My old email address was getting blocked by spam filters :/

EDIT: Oh wow, this topic is old.

Moses
July 21st, 2008, 04:23 AM
ya, i know i just felt like posting something out of my threads for a change :-3

n00b1n8R
July 21st, 2008, 04:30 AM
Haha, I saw Stealth Emmzee and Aggy and I knew something was up. :lol:

Con
July 21st, 2008, 11:48 AM
Where do people find these old threads? :|

gogogogogo page 12 must post post post

Kornman00
July 21st, 2008, 12:07 PM
I thought this story sounded familiar... :|

Con
July 21st, 2008, 12:13 PM
fff, I keep thinking you're ghost. stop it :((((((

Terin
July 21st, 2008, 01:56 PM
Now all we need to do is blow up Nigeria, and all of the spammers will be gone.Nah, spammers would still claim to be the prince of Nigeria, and lure some poor saps into France and break their kneecaps. It wouldn't solve much.

But this is good news.

EDIT: Oh hay there's a second page. How about that.

n00b1n8R
July 21st, 2008, 08:33 PM
fff, I keep thinking you're ghost. stop it :((((((
^<:(>