Man described as a top spammer arrested

31 May 2007 - 11:16 Hot!

A 27-year-old man described as one of the world's most prolific spammers was arrested Wednesday, and federal authorities said computer users across the Web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk e-mail.

Robert Alan Soloway is accused of using networks of compromised "zombie" computers to send out millions upon millions of spam e-mails.

"He's one of the top 10 spammers in the world," said Tim Cranton, a Microsoft Corp. lawyer who is senior director of the company's Worldwide Internet Safety Programs. "He's a huge problem for our customers. This is a very good day."

A federal grand jury last week returned a 35-count indictment against Soloway charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering.

View: Business Week

26 Comments

Good news!

nice

He better get used to having a very large boyfriend named Bubba. He's completely screwed.

I hope they will put spammers out of business.

On the one hand it's good news, but the problem is existing zombie network - even i guy will go to long sentencted prison, he may sell a pass or a couple million $ to other spammer anyway

good, they need to arrest more spammers. the problem is getting out of hand. I hope this guy serves a max sentence.

I hope he gets a really short sentence. About as long as it takes to walk into the gas chamber.

ahhell said,

I hope he gets a really short sentence. About as long as it takes to walk into the gas chamber.

Gas chamber for spamming?? You're an idiot.

magik said,

Gas chamber for spamming?? You're an idiot.

Your an idiot.

This guy deserves more than gas chamber, maybe a trip to Gitmo for a while.

heh if it can lead to less spam, great!

goofball....after being fined and losing 7 million to Microsoft and 10 Million to a ISP in Oklahoma...this idiot continued to get greedy and deserves time with 'Bubba' in Prison.

They better serve him with spam meat for every day during his prison sentence.

and federal authorities said computer users across the Web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk e-mail.

Is it just me, or does that sound like complete bull****? Not that I wouldn't expect it from the 'federal authorities' but

using networks of compromised "zombie" computers

seems to directly contradict them. I highly doubt he was sitting there manually sending tens of millions of emails. His actions are likely to leave a residual effect on the internet for years, and while I agree that this is a step in the right direction, we really need to be doing more. I'm sure web (infinity sign goes here) will fix it!

Man described as a 'top spammer' arrested by Tom Warren in Maine

Way to go, Tom!

He's looking at up to a 65 year sentence and $250,000 fine

IMO, too high (although still justifiable) a jail term and waaaaaaay too low a fine - I think the fine should be in the tens of millions.

Evil Cretin said,

He's looking at up to a 65 year sentence and $250,000 fine

IMO, too high (although still justifiable) a jail term and waaaaaaay too low a fine - I think the fine should be in the tens of millions.

even if he is used as a 'sacrificial lamb' and given both punishments, i can't really see this changing anything - people doing this will just move to countries which either don't have the legislation or means to punish this new type of crime.

unless you get can get an international agreement on spam legislation a few high profile arrests won't make any difference, sadly.

The indictment can be found here.

This is going to be a long trial if they hold on all accounts.

I read the entire thing, and it looks like he is in for a long haul if found guilty.

i wonder how much money he was making... and does anything happen to the companies that paid him to do all of this?

Well he wont have any problem with money since he must've gotten a ton from his spamming. The bad thing is he could just pay up and be out in a few months then start spamming again. :mad: oh well...

Death to all spammers. I mean that sincerely too.

thank god there are no murderers they could have used this energy to catch.

norky said,

thank god there are no murderers they could have used this energy to catch.

Quite possibly the most ignorant and/or uninformed post I have seen here. Ever. And that covers a LOT of ground.

Nice catch by the Feds.

hell this is great news! ... NO ONE likes spammers ... and what makes this even better is they say he's in the top 10 in the world.

i hope they make em pay for this crap.... cause these f***ers are getting rich for doing nothing basically but pi**ing people off.

In an average week I normally get about 1500 spam emails sent to my domain, but they stopped on Tuesday evening, then I didn't receive a single one on Wednesday, and I've only had two today!

I think they found the one who was spamming me!! :nuts:

Excellent news.

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Man described as a top spammer arrested