Slashdot Mirror
Spammer Profile: Scott Richter
prostoalex writes "Westword.com published an article on Scott Richter, the owner of what is supposedly the nation's fastest-growing online marketing company, which mostly specialized in sending out those unsolicited electronic mail messages. Richter is the guy currently being sued by New York Attorney General and Microsoft Corporation for sending out nearly 9000 e-mails only to Hotmail accounts."
WTF is HIS email address???
Voice your support for the Death Penalty for spamers!
But this is slashdot. A slashdoter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber!
It's bad enough that they're spamming me, but then they lie about me signing up for their list. I didn't sign up, I know I didn't sign up, they know I know I didn't sigh up, so why bother?
Just yesterday, Microsoft was devising a plan to invoice spammers, now they are suing a spammer. Who needs the operating system business when you got hotmail!
9000 spam emails doesn't sound like that much. An acquaintance of mine is the developer of si20 and there's more spam than 9000 in a measly half a day of operations.
Is this merely a symbolic legal pursuit? Or is this considered a lot of spam by the powers that be?
The policy from the guy's spam business site:
It prohibits:
"Unsolicited promotions, advertising or solicitations (commonly referred to as "spam"), including, without limitation, commercial advertising and informational announcements, except to those who have explicitly requested such e-mails."
Hmmmm.....
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
By any chance, does that article mention anything that he's fatally allergic to, say, something that could be purchased in bulk from a supermarket?
Just wondering.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
He's a spammer! Burn him!
Oh wait, he's spamming Microsoft Hotmail accounts? Oh hey man welcome back to the community!
Spamhaus.org rates him as the nation's (world's?) #4 spammer.
-- Will program for bandwidth
You see this in business news all the time. Brand X is the fastest growing company blah blah. Well, yeah. It's easy to see big growth numbers when you have three employees.
--- Ban humanity.
I am amazed that you can run an entire business of sending out emails that no one reads. I understand tha overhead = negligable thing, but still...How can he afford the trained monkies to write these things.
I am surprised that mass emailing is still profitable in America, with its restrictive new laws against spam. From India, cheaper connection costs and abundant IT expertise, in addition to laws which allow complete freedom of email, would seem to make India the much better choice for mass emailing business. How long till competition puts Mr. Richter out of business?
...that you'll die sooner or later, and then you won't get any more spam.
Unless of course there's life after death, in which case you'll probably get spamned for all eternity.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Rule #1: Spammers lie.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Sadly, all we are doing is giving this guy free advertising. Even bas publicity is good publicity. On a different note, a lot of these guys are not ashamed of what they do. I met one once at an Open Source conference and when you ask him what he does he very plainly states "I'm a spammer". The guy was a total pariah.
Woohoo! Go Microsoft!
I hope you win this one.
chown -R us.
Says asshat: What people don't understand is that the Internet isn't free.
GOD I FUCKING HATE THESE PEOPLE!
Since when does this dickhead own the Internet? Since when is it "not free" as in "you owe me money"?
ARGH! I not only support the death penalty for these asshats, I think they need to deport this guy's goddamn family to central Cambodia.
The absolute contempt that these people have for all other living beings outside their small inner circles is so mind-numbingly infuriating that I can't even come up with a suitable rant against this guy. The absolute level of FURY that these moronic losers can invoke through their childish, imbecilic, self-centered "give it all to me" outlooks on life could never BEGIN to compare to the narcissism displayed by everyone in Hollywood COMBINED. NEVER HAVE I SO DESIRED TO POP SOMEONE'S HEAD LIKE AN OVERINFLATED BALLOON!
Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
But according to him he's raking in the big bucks! He used to be fat, but now he's 240lbs! Hey, I wonder if he has a large penis now as well?
Point is, the article failed to mention the fact that he is still stealing resources from other ISP machines. While he claims that the Internet isn't free, and he's one of those good "internet marketer bulk emailers" and that all 40 million email addresses were opt-in, and that he's not one of those scummy "hard core spammers" and he honors all remove requests...
Spammers ALWAYS LIE!
He and Darl should get together sometime...
----
I know, this is probably redundant and has probably already been said... but I do hate when thieveses like this joker just keep getting away with spamming.... so the question is asked. Who is giving him the money to continue his "business" and how can we (or anyone) stop it?
Here we see a prime example of self-delusion and self-righteousness substituting for morality. Right, the Internet isn't free. But I didn't realize that I was paying Scott Richter to get online--I thought I was paying Verizon for DSL service.
It is entertaining to see how much these people hate Steve Linford though.
It's really simple folks: if what you are doing is legit, why do you have to forge your headers? Why do you have to hide behind false email addresses? If it is legit, why do you have such a hard time getting legitimate ISPs to sell you bandwidth? Figure it out.
From a PDF of the lawsuit:
OptInRealBig, LLC is a limited liability corporation, with its principal place of business at 1333 W 120th Ave, Suite 101 Westminster, CO 80234.
Wonder if he is getting enough mail at is office? I would expect that a few additional catalogs would do alot to spruce up the place.
How the hell can you call spamming "online marketing". Although I'm, a techie, I have respect for skilled marketeers, analyzing markets and fitting producsts to customers.. Spammers just dump their shit indiscriminately. It's like calling the burger flipper at McDonalds a chef!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Is it possible to "SPAM back" someone by the means of /. effect?
I suppose you'd also favor chopping off someone's hand when they steal something?
An eye for an eye is not sound policy. We've got various laws against using your computer to create a nuisance for others, and they apply to us all, not just to spammers. I don't think I'd cry if any or all of the top ten spammers happened to be hit by a truck, but that doesn't mean I condone intentionally running them down.
This guy is finally getting at least some of what he deserves, which is a trial potentially followed by punishment under the law. If you can contribute evidence to support the charges against him, or bring new charges, then go for it. Otherwise, leave it be.
Idiots are worth $2 apiece? :)
Rule 1: Spammers lie Take a look at a few of his quotes here
The article about him from the BBC is what scares me. "We are very excited [about the new CAN-SPAM law]," said Scott Richter, the president of OptInRealBig, an e-mail marketing firm in Westminster, Colo. "All of our clients had been worried about the California law. In the last two hours we have been booking a lot of orders for January."
This guy is the kind of guy that would piss in your pool. Now that he's got the internet, he gets to piss on millions of people at a time.
AngryPeopleRule
"Science is about ego as much as it is about discovery and truth " - I said it, so sue me.
They all have been in some sort of legal trouble.
And it usually involves extortion, scam or theft. I wish the media would concentrate more on their criminal past. Maybe then people would get a clue and not do any business with them.
I don't know his email address, but his PHONE NUMBER is
(303) 464-8164
N'joy!!
ps- Don't forget to ask if his penis is larger!!
How about a Slashdot Interview with this guy (or another spammer)? I think it would be really interesting to see what (civilized) questions we could ask him and what his answers would be. He says that he puts himself in front of the media so it shouldn't be too hard to get in touch with him.
How about it editors? (I tried suggesting an interview with a spammer before, but since I didn't have a name or contact information the editors didn't want to hear it. I wonder why I should do their job for them when they're the ones getting paid...)
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
The sign on the window next to the entrance of OptInRealBig's offices in Westminster leaves no room for misunderstanding. Or irony.
NO SOLICITING.
Thats right. Thanks to the spamlords its a cost-center for most firms transmitting and receiving this junk instead of a profit center.
Yeah, but then he'll just take some herbal vi@gra and grow back to 6'1", because everyone knows it makes pricks get bigger.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
A lot of spammers are based in unfriendly countries and are very difficult to sue.
Not true. The vast majority of spammers are based in the US.
What we need is a prosecutor looking to make a name for himself who is willing to do the homework to apply the existing anti-cracking laws (what is filter evasion, if not an attempt to circumvent computer security for the purpose of gaining prohibited access to other people's computer?)
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
Read the article. Case in point was Iraq trading cards. He sent out 15 million emails, received 40,000 purchases. That's 1:375. Better than I would have thought. That's also $5.06 profit per transaction, which means he grossed $202,400, and I'll bet his net take wasn't much lower than the gross (what's the overhead for a spammer? Virtually nil, I would imagine.)
"Teachers leave us kids alone
You can usually reverse-resolve a phone number through google like this.
In a perfect world... spammers would get caught, go to jail, and share a cell with many men who have enlarged their penisses, taken Viagra and are looking for a new relationship.
The problem is that there is not ZERO new business. He sent out 15 million emails advertising Iraqi most wanted playing cards, and generated 40,000 orders. That's a sucess rate of around .26%. This may be low, but it is something, with a profit of $151,800. So next time he sends out the email to 60 million people, hoping to generate 120,000 responses. At $5.06 profit per order, that would generate him $607,200. And that was just over the course of a week. With really small return rates, the spammer's goal is to send out the message to more and more people. So until the percentage of people responding to spam reaches zero, there will always be people willing to invest in it. And the amount of spam will increase as it nears the end, rather than a slow decline, as spammers desperately try to keep up profits by spamming more and more people to get the diminishing returns on their marketing.
I imagine them like loyd in Dumb and Dummer "What are the odds of me and you getting together?"
"One in a million"
"So you're saying there's a chance!"
(sorry if I butchered the quote, it's been a few years since I saw the movie)
If you can read this then I forgot to check "Post Anonymously"