A man nicknamed the ‘spam king’ for allegedly (I hate that word) sending out millions of junk e-mails has been arrested in the US. Robert Soloway was arrested in Seattle, Washington, after being indicted on charges of mail fraud, identity theft and money laundering. Mr. Soloway has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Prosecutors say Mr. Soloway became one of the world's biggest spammers, using computers secretly infected with orders to send out millions of his e-mails.
Such computers are known as ‘zombies’ because their owners often have no idea they have been hijacked for another purpose. According to prosecutors, Mr. Soloway was responsible for tens of millions of unsolicited e-mails promoting his own company between November 2003 and May 2007. He is said to have frequently changed the web address of his internet marketing business to avoid being caught. A US lawyer said Mr. Soloway was the first person to be prosecuted for sending out spam e-mails using federal laws against identity theft. Prosecutors want to seize the sum of $773,000 that Mr. Soloway is said to have made from his firm. If convicted of all the charges, he also faces a fine of $250,000 and a maximum prison term of 65 years – that’s nuts. You mean you get more jail time for ‘spamming’ than you do for murder? What a crazy world we live in.
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May 31, 2007
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About Laurence Cutner
Laurence Cutner moved from England to Canada 20 years ago and has lived in Durham Region for 11 years. He has been so long in the IT industry that he has a Tandy Portable, a Compaq ‘luggable’, a Commodore 64 and 4 PCs at home. Beyond that he is an avid reader of sci-fi and his current obsession, alternative history. He has, in the past, backpacked through Europe and traveled to the Middle East and South America. His real boast is that he has been married for 26 years and has a son who is possibly even more ‘techie’ than him.
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When he gets out of jail I want to ask him about that lottery he told me I won!
Posted by: mykodachrome | June 03, 2007 at 10:44 PM