High-Profile Computer Spammer Faces Possible Decades in Prison

Spam is basically a bombardment of junk messages that is sent to electronic sources such as e-mail(s), cell phones, and more, in order to help overflow their mailbox with generally useless and empty promises, fake winnings, and other undesired and/or fake information. But according to Newsday.com, one high-profile spammer has now been jailed. (Spam Flows Despite High-Profile Arrest - Newsday.com)

The online junkie, known as Robert Alan Soloway, has made the top 10 in The Spamhaus Project, which is an international anti-spam organization. Since then, many other spammers have topped Soloway, whom is age 27, but they are based outside of United States or European jurisdictions, so therefor they cannot be penalized for their actions.

According to Newsday, the spammer was promptly arrested on Wednesday. The charges that Soloway face include mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering. (Spam Flows Despite High-Profile Arrest - Newsday.com)

However, this is not the first time Soloway has been caught and fought against when it comes to spamming. Wikipedia, a web-based encyclopedia, states the following about Soloway:

"[...](Soloway) lost a case in a federal court against the operator of a small Oklahoma-based Internet service provider who accused him of spamming. U.S. Judge Ralph G. Thompson granted a motion by plaintiff Robert Braver for a default judgment and permanent injunction against him. The judgment includes a statutory damages award of $10,075,000 under Oklahoma law". (Wikipedia.org - Search "Spam (electronic)")

Newsday also tells us that another incident happened even prior to that. In the year 2003, Soloway had another suit against him from Microsoft Corp. Microsoft Corp. won the civil case and was granted $10 million for their win. (Spam Flows Despite High-Profile Arrest - Newsday.com)

Newsday states that Soloway also used "zombies". "These are generally home computers whose owners typically have no idea that their machines have been infected with viruses or other malicious programs [...]". (Spam Flows Despite High-Profile Arrest - Newsday.com).

The reason why this spam is so dangerous is due to the fact that spam can contain and spread computer viruses, trojans horses (usually called "trojans"). Also, spam can lead to severe cases of identity theft, and advance fee fraud. Spamming can also be used to "phish", which steals personal information about the computer in use, and the owner of the computer. (Wikipedia.org - Search "Spam (electronic)").

Soloway may be sentenced to prison for decades for his crimes. These crimes, as stated before, include mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering.

Source: Anick Jesdanun,"Spam Flows Despite High-Profile Arrest." Newsday.
URL: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/sns-ap-spam-arrest,0,2402379.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines