‘Pure greed’ led spammer to bombard inboxes Preparing for prison, ‘King of Spam’ says he let money get the best of him By Jim Popkin NBC News Senior Investigative Producer NBC News updated 9:10 a.m. ET, Mon., Sept. 22, 2008 <script language="javascript"> function UpdateTimeStamp(pdt) { var n = document.getElementById("udtD"); if(pdt != '' && n && window.DateTime) { var dt = new DateTime(); pdt = dt.T2D(pdt); if(dt.GetTZ(pdt)) {n.innerHTML = dt.D2S(pdt,(('false'.toLowerCase()=='false')?false:true));} } } UpdateTimeStamp('633576858343170000');</script> SEATTLE - Robert Soloway is a convicted e-mail spammer. By his own admission, he’s sent so many spam, or junk, emails to Americans he lost count long ago. "I would say it's over 10 trillion, most likely, from my home computer that I bought for $1,200 at Office Depot,” Soloway told NBC News in a recent interview at his home in Seattle. “So it's very easy. It really is easy to reach a massive amount of people." Soloway said he knew he was filling computer in-boxes with unwanted ads and solicitations and annoying millions of people. But he didn’t really care. "I don’t have time to sit here and listen to you complain about getting e-mails. 'Delete it!' That was kind of my response,” Soloway said. For Soloway, spamming was easy and lucrative. “I made it, $20,000 a day. And I spent $20,000 a day,” he boasted. He was a millionaire by 18, took extravagant trips to Las Vegas, owned homes in the Northwest and — at his peak —- had seven luxury cars filling his driveway. His scheme? He sent millions of spam messages to computer users encouraging them to send spam messages, too. For just $149, Soloway’s pitches boasted, buy a simple software product from me and you’ll be able to quickly send out millions of messages too, and sell your own products. “I wasn’t just selling Viagra pills. I was selling something to help other people sell their Viagra pills,” Soloway said. Federal law-enforcement officials weren’t amused. After a lengthy investigation, they arrested him, and prosecutors dubbed him the “King of Spam” at a press conference. Soloway pleaded guilty to mass spamming, a federal crime since 2004, and to forging his identity in millions of e-mail solicitations. He also admitted to defrauding customers who bought his software products online. When the Feds arrested him at his Seattle penthouse apartment, they seized bank accounts and some of his ill-gotten gains: 27 pairs of designer shoes, Armani and Prada jackets, even two dozen pairs of expensive sunglasses. “Pure greed,” Soloway now says of himself. “It's the American story of simply letting money get to someone who doesn't know how to handle it." He vows to never spam again, and has plenty of time to ponder a new career. A federal judge sentenced Soloway to nearly four years in federal prison for fraud and criminal spamming, and ordered him to repay more than $700,000. His prison terms starts any day now. © 2008 MSNBC Interactive <script>var url=location.href;var i=url.indexOf('/did/') + 1;if(i==0){i=url.indexOf('/print/1/') + 1;}if(i==0){i=url.indexOf('&print=1');}if(i>0){url = url.substring(0,i);document.write('URL: '+url+' ');if(window.print){window.print()}else{alert('To print his page press Ctrl-P on your keyboard \nor choose print from your browser or device after clicking OK');}}</script>URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26797741/
So, what happens next? Well my economic philosophy is very clear on what happens next. Having stepped to the precipice of reality the VISIBLE HAND of the controlled market made its decision yet again. They had a choice to allow the invisible hand of the market to come in and destroy all that they had built (built upon SAND!!) or to once again cover over the very loud and clear voice of the free market and once again delay the inevitable. They chose to cover up and to delay yet again, all but ensuring an even harsher re-alignment in the future. What happens next is HYPER inflation. What we have witnessed up to this point was a combination of pretty bad inflation in the things we needed coupled with deflation in the things we don’t need(cars, ipod’s, computers, even homes). The inflation we felt in the run up to this dislocation was but a small taste of what is possible. They are now DARING the invisible hand of the market to knock them off their pedestals. But of course when that happens they have their golden parachutes to save them(land in places that can survive the turmoil) and we will be left to deal with the harsh mistress that is the free market. For she will re-teach us the meaning of LIVING WITHIN YOUR MEANS, and saving and prudence; I don’t dare even think about how harsh this lesson will be to billions of people, but it is a lesson that will be learned yet again. If only the masters of the universe would just let reality rule and to stop trying to give us peons something for nothing. Or maybe the answer lies on the other side of the equation. WHEN WILL WE stop taking something for nothing? It goes back to one of my favorite imaginary conversations that will take place some time in a prosperous and enlightened future(one that my children happily inhabit and their children). When that man comes to the town center and says to the gathered masses “ HAVE I GOT A DEAL FOR YOU”, I hope the inhabitants of that enlightened town take that mother ****er and string him from the nearest street lamp and leave him there as a warning to ANYONE who thinks they can give us something for nothing. Because anyone who says they can is a ****ing liar and worse than that they will become a murderer of millions. Robert http://www.doomers.us/forum2/index.php/topic,25672.0.html from latoc That's exactly how I feel about spammers and most marketters...
Now if they just get rid of the car warranty renewal people and that Nigerian sucker who says 1.3 mil is waiting for you in a bank somewhere.
