E-mail "Spam King" Gets 47 Months Jail

another kills family/self

[engine]

E-mail "Spam King" [pcworld.com]Gets 47 Months Jail

The "spam king" was sentenced on Tuesday to 47 months in prison, with a ruling that the court hopes sends a message to other online criminals.

Robert Soloway, the man known as the spam king for the massive volume of spam he sent out, pleaded guilty to fraud, spamming and tax evasion after being indicted in May 2007. After an unusually long sentencing hearing lasting two-and-a-half days, Judge Marsha Pechman handed down her sentence in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle.

The case has been closely watched because only a few such spam cases have ever been tried. A man named Jeremy Jaynes was sentenced in Virginia earlier this year to nine years in prison for his spam crimes, and Adam Vitale got slightly more than two years for a recent conviction in New York.

Earlier Story: Adam Vitale
30 Months Jail And $180,000 Fine For NY Spammer [webmasterworld.com]

[arieng]

I always thought Samford Wallace was the 'Spam King'. ?

Anyway, I glad to see some convictions with teeth. The unfortunate truth is it will just drive spammers offshore, but its a start.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Let's hear it for Judge Marsha Pechman! :)

[Lord Majestic]

There should be more convictions of those who ultimately finance this spamming activity - spammers do it to earn money from 3rd parties, and it is those 3rd parties that need to get it, not just spammers.

[LifeinAsia]

With apologies to Mel Brooks, I guess it's *NOT* good to be the king. :)

I always thought Samford Wallace was the 'Spam King'. ?

Just like with royalty, new "kings" always come in to take the place of old ones.

Let's hear it for Judge Marsha Pechman! :)

Definitely! Especially since she even admitted she had few guidelines to follow. But I'd say she came up with a decent sentence, considering:

Soloway has previously lost cases brought against him by Microsoft and by an ISP in Oklahoma, yet continued to spam.

[fitzer]

Speaking of spammers and jail...

Looks like "Colorado's most notorious spammer", Eddie Davidson, just escaped from jail:
[denverpost.com...]

Guard your inboxes! lol

[Zamboni]

from the Denver Post article
""Spam King" Eddie Davidson was being sought by federal authorities after walking away from federal prison in Florence on July 20, 2008."

Will the real "Spam King" please stand up, please stand up.

[Staffa]

she had few guidelines to follow

But she had one that overshadowed all : [he] pleaded guilty to fraud, spamming and tax evasion

[Webwork]

Jail time should relate to the total time wasted by humanity "handling" the spam attributable to the spammer being sentenced. A spammer should not be heard to complain about losing the time of his life to jail when the spammer has sentenced millions of others to wasting their time at desks, clearing their inboxes.

The judiciary needs to get a better handle on the price paid by victims of spam. It's their most precious possession = the time of their life, being abused, trashed, wasted dealing with spam.

The courts and legislature need to stop pussyfooting around with this abuse of humanity. Make the sentence "fit" the crime. Time in jail for time costs imposed on others. If that means a life sentence I'm sure the total time will be a tiny fraction of the time everyone else "lost to the crime".

"Time served for time stolen". That's the crime of spam. Stealing time. It's precious. Make the penalty fit the crime.

[g1smd]

Even at one second jail time per spam sent, the top spammers would be still be doing a few thousand years inside.

[lawman]

Get a rope.

[fearlessrick]

I agree that sentences for spam should be longer. It's not just the time wasted by people on spam, how about the bandwidth and countless hours of comuting time by IT pros spent fighting spam. The monetary damages of spam are in the $$$ billions.

Making spammers wear oven mittens for life would not be an extreme punishment, IMO. Better than the alternative - cutting off their fingers.

This guy should have gotten a minimum of ten years.

[SEOMike]

It'd be interesting to hear what portion of the 47 month sentence is related to spamming. Wonder if that's how it got to be a strange number.

[redstorm]

i hope i had never received spamming email from Robert Soloway

[SEOPTI]

Nice, I hate eMail spammers.

[incrediBILL]

So when are they going to send idiots to prison for harming the environment with the large amounts of paper spam delivered daily courtesy of the USPS?

The paper spam actually damages the environment while electronic spam only annoys people.

So wasting tons of paper, having poor mailmen drag it around, wasting gas hauling it is OK but burning a few electrons to send something instantly is a crime.

Anyone see the disparity here?

[pageoneresults]

Anyone see the disparity here?

Hey! Don't get me started here...

I still don't think he can lay claim to the Spam King title.

I'm still getting those damn link requests!

[briggidere]

And then they let them drive out of prison, brilliant

[securecomputing.net.au...]

[pageoneresults]

Convicted spammer Edward "Eddie" Davidson has escaped from a federal prison camp after serving just five weeks of a 21 month sentence.

What a dingbat! Turn a 21 month sentence into a First Degree Felony, oh boy.

47 Months Jail

Hmmmm, I think that would be enough time for most to dwell on their wrong doings such as this, yes?

I'll be back in a week after the smoke blows over...

[lawman]

So when are they going to send idiots to prison for harming the environment with the large amounts of paper spam delivered daily courtesy of the USPS?

Hey, start another thread incrediBILL. That's an entirely different topic.

[Webwork]

let them drive out of prison

How poetic.

Even the best darned anti-spammer prisons can't keep all spammers in, eh?

[Staffa]

I think that would be enough time for most to dwell on their wrong doings

or enough time to take a rest and think up better ways on how to do it next time. ;o)

[koan]

The paper spam actually damages the environment while electronic spam only annoys people.

Paper spam is extra bad because of the negative environmental effect, sure, but electronic spam is not "annoying". It costs billions to the economy.

If you still don't get it: If I scream once in your ears, it's annoying, if I scream 2 hours a day in your ears, and maybe to a few thousand other people in a small town, it's harassment on a large scale with a huge toll, and I should go to jail.

[the_nerd]

pleaded guilty to fraud, spamming and tax evasion

So you think they dug up those old Al Capone files? Look where the money goes .....

[johnnie]

That he may rot and droppeth teh soapz!

[scraptoft]

Coincidence or not the 200+ spam emails my inbox recieved daily has been reduced to 3 or 4 in the last week. None so far today :-).

[g1smd]

*** electronic spam only annoys people ***

Maybe, but I'll guess that most people receive several hundred electronic spams, for every paper-based one.

*** burning a few electrons ***

Sending, routing, storing, and delivering billions of items of spam every day must be using all of the power from several dozen power-stations on a global scale. That's a heck of a lot of oil, coal, or nuclear power being wasted.

[Commerce]

Speaking of spammers and jail...
Looks like "Colorado's most notorious spammer", Eddie Davidson, just escaped from jail:
[denverpost.com...]

Actually this story is a tragic followup:
[denverpost.com...]

Horrible story, evil man and as the U.S. Attorney said, a coward.

-Commerce
(Edited error on quote source)

[edited by: Commerce at 4:25 am (utc) on July 25, 2008]

[pageoneresults]

Wow, all joking aside, that is a very sad ending to the story. :(

[johnnie]

My god, the #%$&^@ actually slayed his family :(