RSSOne spammer sentenced to prison as another escapes
By Tim Conneally | Published July 23, 2008, 9:00 PM
One Internet spammer was sentenced this week to nearly four years in prison, while another fled a correctional facility and is currently on the run.
Robert Soloway, who ran Newport Internet Marketing Corp and pled guilty to mail fraud, e-mail fraud, and tax evasion in May 2007 received his sentence yesterday: 3 years and 11 months in federal prison.
The sentence was handed down by Judge Marsha Pechman in the District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle. The prosecution asked for a seven to nine year sentence, similar to the one Jeremy Jaynes received in 2005 for his spamming activity, believed to be the first case of felony spamming.
In May, self-proclaimed "spam king" Sanford Wallace was hit with the maximum fine allowable under the CAN-SPAM act: $230 million, to be paid to Myspace.
Soloway is no stranger to the courts: Microsoft won a $7 million judgment against him two years ago, and an Oklahoma ISP a $10 million judgment. However, he continued to spam even after these decisions, authorities say.
Microsoft said that Soloway was one of the top 10 spammers in the world, saying he was "a huge problem for our customers." Authorities said some were spending up to $1,000 per week to fight the spam he was sending out.
Though his sentence was shorter than the one handed down to Jaynes, and less costly than the one given to Wallace, it's at least more serious than the one given to another self-proclaimed spam king.
Edward Davidson was sentenced to 21 months in Florence Federal Correctional Complex, where Sunday he simply walked off and has not been seen since. Davidson's company Power Promoters made at least $3.5 million from spam contracts with penny stock companies, and he is now being hunted by the US Marshals, the FBI and the IRS.
Actually the guy shot himself...
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|doesn't look like
http://www.rlslog.net/re...viagra-spammer-murdered/
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|I heard that Russian mafia treats this guys in a much better way ... :)
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|i say he needs to pay for his crime but not prison like maybe house arrest with no internet access or something, i mean yes he cost peopele millions but he didnt put a gun to there head. imho he had a good idea and the system was never desined for it, like usps send jucnk mail, you know how much less work the mail man would have to do if he was not going to a mailbox to simpley drop off junk mail, think about it, at worst case he needs to pay somekinda fee to mass email, but prison, WTF!
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|I'm really scared knowing that this hardened criminal could be hiding in our back yards...I think they should put him on that Americas Most Wanted show....you know...since it costs me thousands of dollars to delete spam apparently...
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|And now that he's murdered his wife and child, and killed himself, what sarcastic remark do you have for us now?
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|The guy allegedly smuggled himself out in can of SPAM that he had previously emptied in his cell.
I really don't hope they are using too much resource in catching this one, I personally can live with him being on the lose.
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|Lock 'em up and throw the key away for about 10 years. These creeps cause more headaches.
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|Yeah it is "SO" hard to hit delete *lol* oh pain oh pain
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|It comes down to money.
With thousands of spam messages being recieved by companies every day they have to set up systems to deal with the levels of spam.
These systems cost money.
Also, it costs money to have people maintain these systems.
Also, it could end in real email being missed as it's been collected by the spam filter.
So yes, sometimes delete is a hard button to press.
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|It looks to me like, it is good for the economy. It helps create employement :)
That said, in my opinion spamming itself in not the biggest problem, but phishing and such tactics are.
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|If it so good for the economy, give me your email address so I can help by forwarding all my spam to you.
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