Spam Canned

A man who sent so many spam messages that Federal investigators called him "The Spam King" has been apprehended and faces up to 65 years in Federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

Robert Soloway, 27, was arrested in Seattle, Washington, a week after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of identity theft, money laundering, and mail, wire, and e-mail fraud.

"Spam is a scourge of the Internet, and Robert Soloway is one of its most prolific practitioners," said US Attorney for the Western District of Washington Jeffrey Sullivan.

"Our investigators dubbed him the 'Spam King' because he is responsible for millions of spam emails."

Between November of 2003 and May of 2007 Soloway "spammed" tens of millions of e-mail messages to promote websites at which his company, Newport Internet Marketing, sold products and services, according to prosecutors.

Soloway routinely moved his website to different Internet addresses to dodge detection and began registering them through Chinese Internet service providers in 2006 in an apparent ploy to mask his involvement.

Spam messages sent by Soloway used misleading "header" information to dupe people into opening them, according to Sullivan.

The Feds want to seize $773,000 from this guy that they say he made doing his spamming. The authorities say Soloway used botnets extensively. So he was not just a spammer, he made computers belonging to other people into zombies - planting trojans that took over the computers. Not just a spammer, but a thief, it seems.

Have a nice life in the can, Spam King.