Feds arrest one of world's most prolific spammers

Filed under: News, E-mail

Feds arrest one of world's most prolific spammers

by Brad Linder May 31st 2007

A 27 year old Seattle man responsible for sending billions of spam e-mails every day has been taken into custody. A lawyer for Microsoft calls Robert Soloway one of the world's top 10 spammer. And officials suggest now that he has been arrested you may notice an immediate drop in the amount of spam in your inbox.

Soloway's been charged with 35 counts including fraud, money laundering and identity theft.

While no one wants to receive unsolicited email advertising products you don't want, (well, apparently someone must, or there wouldn't be any point to spamming), prosecutors say Soloway went much further, breaking numerous laws to get his messages out.

Many of his emails include fake headers with e-mail addresses registered to names of innocent individuals or organizations, which has led to some email services blacklisting those addresses or domains.

He tells prosecutors he has no money, but he drives a Mercedes and lives in an expensive apartment. This isn't Soloway's first tussle with the law. In 2005 Microsoft won a $7 million judgment against him, and in 2006, an Oklahoma ISP won another $10 million. If found guilty in the federal case, Soloway could be facing some serious jail time.

Tags: legal, microsoft, robert soloway, RobertSoloway, spam

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Marky said 11:12AM on 5-31-2007

I have always wondered, why don't the anti-spam authorities target the firms who use the spammers. They must know their products are being advertised by illegal means.

richard.gailey said 1:16PM on 5-31-2007

Good point Marky.

This is great news, and about time something has started to happen about it. Maybe this will send a message.

UltimateQ said 2:28PM on 5-31-2007

All I have to say is... Yay!

The Dude Dean!! said 5:06PM on 5-31-2007

The main problem when dealing with spammers is that they like to call themselves the euphemism "email marketers" and the people that run websites call spam "email blasts". Lets call it what it is. Spam.

ahoier said 10:20AM on 6-04-2007

I wonder if there is any link to KnuJon here? :) I've been submitting all of my spam there lately...and well, I was amazed with my latest report...they've gotten a couple of the common domains suspended already...and I've only been using it maybe a month.

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