Spam King Arrested,Long Live Spam

Being hailed as a significant week for the Internet, last week reportedly saw the arrest of one of Internet's most prolific spammers, Robert Alan Soloway (27), rightly christened 'Spam King' by federal prosecutors.

So much so that Internet users around the world heaved a sigh of relief, as Soloway's arrest meant their e-mail inboxes would no longer have to suffer being clogged with millions of unwanted messages... At least, that's what was voiced by computer security specialists across the globe.

A jubilant Jeffrey Sullivan, US Attorney for the Western District of Washington, reportedly said, "Spam is the scourge of the Internet, and Robert Soloway is one of its most prolific practitioners. Our investigators dubbed him 'Spam King' as he is responsible for millions of spam e-mails."

Patrick Peterson, Vice President of Technology, IronPort Systems, exclaimed, "This is a great day for the Internet. The message it sends is going to have a much bigger impact than what we see in our inboxes, which is undetectable."

Peterson added that Soloway is the first spammer in the US to be charged with aggravated identity theft under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. "Everyone involved in clapping those handcuffs on him are heroes," Peterson lauded the investigators.

Soloway, owner of Newport Internet Marketing, was arrested last week after being indicted by a federal grand jury on 10 counts of mail fraud, 5 counts of wire fraud, 2 counts of e-mail fraud, 5 counts of aggravated identity theft, and 13 counts of money laundering.

A total of 35 counts, all related to junk e-mail. However, Soloway pleaded 'not guilty' to all of these counts, as per court documents.

The charges against the 'Spam King' are multi-fold. He is accused of operating false Web sites and over 50 domains, through which he posed as an advertiser offering legitimate 'broadcast e-mail services' with 'permission-based opt-in e-mail addresses'.

He is accused of fooling legitimate businesses into buying marketing software/services that turned out to be no more than spam tools. And when these businesses found the gumption to complain, they were allegedly met with threats and intimidation.

The 'Seattle Spammer' (one more of his nick-names) is also accused of creating over 2,000 proxy computers or botnets, of using stolen e-mail and domain names to block others' ISP addresses, and so on.

Soloway's indictment is largely the fruit of a joint investigation by the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Unit, the US Postal Inspection Service, and the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Units of the Department of Justice.

He is scheduled to remain in custody until his detention trial sometime next week.