One Of The World Biggest Spammers Going To Jail

[Saint_Michael 3]

Federal court handed out a 35 count indictment to 27 year old Robert Alan Soloway, who is consider one of the top 10 spammers the world as seen. Previously Soloway got sued by Microsoft for $7 Million dollars and then a ISP in Oklahoma nailed him yet again for $10 million. The way Soloway did this was through a network of zombie computers to sent out Millions of spam for people to advertise through him. Although the prison time is yet uncertain he is expected to spend decades for this little venture of his.

What I find amusing though is that they say that people well see a decrease in spam, because of this guy going to jail $10 dollars someone will just take his place and either do the same or do it better.

SOURCE

Here

[Plenoptic 0]

That is really funny. Goes to show you what spamming can get you into so you better not do it here The warnings given by admins keep you from going to jail. (or not) Doesn't matter how many spammers they throw in jail, they probably make so much money from doing it somehow that they'll get out eventually or more people will take their place like SM said. I can imagine what it's like for him in jail. ""Hey what are you in for?... A Robbery. You? ... Spamming. " There will always be spammers sadly but oh well, at least they are trying to do something about it. They probably don't have a standard on what to send people to jail for after spamming the world with emails.

[Carson 0]

I dont think anyone should go to Jail for spamming. It may be a crime, but, it's not exactly a serious offense. You'd think the police would have something better to do than catch someone who spams people. It sounds silly to me. I'm not for spamming at all. I don't know why people would waste their time on something so stupid. I think that a very large fine would do, but not jail time.

[Jarlaxe 0]

lol, nice one!i hate it when my email gets spammed by somebody i dont even know. Good to get a crackdown going on them.

[wenster 0]

Man the guy owns a Mercedes convertible and they're trying to make him fork over about $800 thousand. THat's alot of money. I could do alot with that. lol. I guess he didn't protect himself very well through spammy ways of avoiding detection.I'm sure someone will take his place and just like St. Michael said $10 someone might do a better job than him.

[velma 6]

Hi Carson,It is a sort of serious issue for spamming in forums is alright as they can be caught and thrown out thus saving a lot of pain but in many cases the spammers take free hosting and send a lot of spam resulting in lag and depletion of sources of the Webhoster.Sometimes the spammer hacks into other people's accounts and uses it to send a lot of spam causing a problem to the account holder as it is his name that pops up not the hackers.It is a crime for sometimes these people can steal money making duplicate sites like ebay, paypal and such.It is good that the spammer went to jail as he deserves it and all the others too should join them for it is an inconvenience for hosters. But the problem is that the number of spammers are so great that if one leaves the next one appears.

[t3jem 0]

I'm glad he's going to jail. I say 25 years. If he hasn't learned his lesson after the first two times maybe he will after 25 years. Spam is as good a harrasment. Had he been following you around all the time asking "Would you like to buy (insert product" then you would sue him too. I'm glad he got caught. I hope they catch more and can deter more people from spamming.

[adriantc 0]

I salute the courts decision although I don't know if it will have any influence on the amount of spam we receive every day. I'he heard that over 80% of all emails are spam, unwanted emails.I don't think that stoping one spammer can reduce thu number of spam.If I don't clean my inbox for a week I have around 1000 spam emails. I made the imprudence of pasting the support email on my website and now I receive lots and lots of spam. Every 2 months I receive a waring email saying my inbox is full of spam.As more and more people get access to internet spam will also grow. Still this was an important decision because it was the first. Now other courts can do the same and maybe, just maybe, spam can be at least controled if not reduced.

Edited May 31, 2007 by adriantc (see edit history)

[velma 6]

Sometimes out of 3 pages of mails I delete 2 pages of spam so you can imagine how frustrated I get when I see a huge number of mails but then realize that it is mostly spam.I am happy that atleast some spammer is going to jail and there will be a few more following him again

[master_bacarra 0]

lol, i thought this was about SM going to jail hahaha. and the title implies "great spammer". i find it a bit weird though. i mean sending a spammer to jail? that's something new. but then again, i've had annoying spam on my gmail recently. and it's directed on the inbox and not on the spam box. i don't know why i keep getting that though. saying that i am a beneficiary of someone i don't even know

[Lyon2 0]

I am not happy about getting my e-mail filled with spam messages nor my website guestbook with spam too but, i do not think the spammer should get years of jail, 1 year of jail maximum, in my opinion, and that because most of them do it for profit, and a lot of people get e-mail messages created with the only purpose of selling, and we all know, "a fool is born every minute!".Besides the fact that it is a crime, even 1 year of jail can be considered too much, even for me because i did not think a lot about this matter, but, 1 year of jail is not what i call of "too excessive" for this young criminals.

Edited May 31, 2007 by Lyon2 (see edit history)

[CinnamorollTK 0]

Its nice to know they're catching the spammers. I thought that they let them do whatever they wanted. What shocks me is that the spammer is such a young person.

[FolkRockFan 0]

One source reported that this spammer was brought up on charges of identity theft - which is part of the reason why the case is being taken so seriously.Because he used zombie computers - systems that were taken over - to spam the snot out of the entire Internet, the identity theft charges are valid. He impersonated a bunch of other people - stole their identities - to send out garbage e-mails.He deserves to sit in prison for a while because he intentionally and willfully broke a whole bunch of laws. That's the penalty for being a criminal. If one does not want to go to prison, then one should find an honest profession. I suggest becoming a pawnbroker or starting a payday-advance place. Either one is a legal form of extortion: one that can make somebody wealthy. (Not that I like either business - just saying.)

[Renaissance 0]

This guy deserves whatever they hand to him. This reminds me of a few years back where a spammer got cornered in an internet cafe and tried to swallow the evidence (a USB thumbdrive)! I believe he got fined a large amount and had to do some community service thing. The difference is that he didn't commit identity theft.I'd like to go back in time and slap the people who invented/started internet spam but I know that A.) it's physically impossible and B.) someone else would have done it eventually anyways.

Edited May 31, 2007 by Renaissance (see edit history)

[serverph 0]

spam is an industry nowadays, and i don't see the volume of spam on my inbox to be drastically reduced with the incarceration of one spammer. it's a surefire moneymaker for some devious, hustling, racketeering individuals out there, and it is an online pestilence we are bound to have in our inboxes for generations to come. having thrown the judicial books on him would hardly make a dent on spam reaching us. who knows, when in prison, he'll still have access to the internet. AND he can still resume his spamming activities from inside. i hope he goes "unplugged" to the net when he is serving his sentence though, never to see nor touch any electronic device while inside.