“Spam King” Held, Spam Plunges Up to 8%

On May 30, 2007, US Dept of Justice agent held a man Richard Alan Soloway - the so-called 'Spam King'. Soloway was charged with email fraud, and money laundering. He was questioned in Seattle court and after a week (6 June, 2007) he was sent to imprisonment. But, there was an increase of 8% in the frequency of spam.

Postini Inc., the communication security firm of San Carlos, California found that recently, the spam accounted for 2.8 billion emails over the seven days period spanning June 5, 2007-June 12, 2007. However, the numbers were 2.6 billion in the days of the spam king. Postini examines the amount of spam emails it filters for its customers on a regular basis.

It would be a big mistake on to consider that spamming would come down with the arrest of spam king. As, underestimating the spammers may result in allowing them to carry out their malicious activities. Every company has a defined plan for contingency and spammers are surely not an exception, says Diego'd Ambra, Soft scan CTO, as published by Source Wire in the first week of June 2007.

As per the data collected by an international London based anti-spam organization, Spamhaus Project, it has been noted that around 80% of spam, globally, is directed by almost 130 spammers or gangs. Of course, Richard's name was also on data but he was not listed among the top ten. However, the top ten list consisted of 4 Russians, 2 Ukrainians, an Israeli, an American, an Australian and finally a resident of Hong Kong. Out of this, one of the Ukrainians owns a fake online bank.

Co-author of "Fighting Spam for Dummies", John Levine of Trumansburg, NY said that almost all customers ignore such messages, but owing to the fact that spam is not so expensive, the spammers easily make money through it. Soloway is also reported to support himself by sending spam and earns nearly around $700,000 per year, as per the reports of Live Science on June 12, 2007.

Spamhaus has reported some large spammers who are expert in using pump-and-dump schemes, in which they force the users to buy stock that they have little knowledge about. Unfortunately, many customers buy them raising the price to a higher level, which results in profit for the hacker.

Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC

» SPAMfighter News - 6/28/2007