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Spammer Robert Soloway Arrested

Posted by samzenpus on from the that-should-fix-it dept.

Mike writes "Yahoo is reporting that US prosecutors captured Robert Soloway, a prolific Internet marketer responsible so much junk e-mail they called him "Spam King." Soloway was arrested in Seattle, Washington, a week after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of identity theft, money laundering, and mail, wire, and e-mail fraud. Soloway is accused of using botnets to disguise where e-mail originated and of forging return addresses of real people or businesses for his mass mailings. If convicted as charged, Soloway will face a maximum sentence of more than 65 years in prison and a fine of 250,000 dollars."

4 of 383 comments (clear)

  1. More on Soloway.. by Dynamoo · · Score: 5, Informative
    Soloway also has close ties to other arch-spammers Alex Polyakov and Leo Kuvayev. Between those three there is a substantial involvement in fraud, money laundering and even child pornography. It's hard to say who is responsible for what.. but I betcha that the Russians are running scared that Soloway will really start to talk. I've documented this connection a couple of times in the past (see here and here.)

    There's plenty of evidence around to nail Soloway for a long, long time.. but to be honest he's not even the worst spammer out there. I suspect the possibility of a plea bargain is quite likely, so that international law enforcement can get to the even bigger fish.

    --
    Never email donotemail@WeAreSpammers.com
  2. Re:Is 65 years excessive? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think that sentence for all charges not just spamming: identity theft, money laundering, and mail, wire, and e-mail fraud. So if you add them all up, 65 years is probably right.

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  3. Re:A crime? by simong · · Score: 3, Informative

    In this case it's about the illegal use of resources - botnets work by hacking PCs and using them to send mail via their Internet connections, which in most countries would be punishable under their equivalent of the UK Wireless Telegraphy Act (actually I think the 2006 revision changed that, but the principle is still there) irrespective of the content in the spam. Also, the vast percentage of spam promotes illegal or semi-illegal products or is a front for scams. Yes, anyone who responds to spam is a fool, but in the end, if they're conned out of anything than a crime has been committed somewhere.

  4. Soloway Mocks MS Suit - Will he mock again? by newsact · · Score: 5, Informative
    Spamhaus Project has a rather long list of Soloway's recorded history. He mocks every attempt to nail him such us the lawsuit from Microsoft http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/evidence.lasso?rokso _id=ROK5164 We will probably do the same again...

    "I've been in business for over 10 years with the best accountants in the world, and lawyers in all 50 states that know how to run my business legally and protect me from all lawsuits that come my way.. not a concern.. I just pay them a few hours of my work and they take care of the entire cases for me..."