Posted on 08/22/2005 9:00:54 AM PDT by varyouga
BURNSVILLE, MINNEAPOLIS: Chris-topher Smith’s neighbours didn’t know exactly what he did for a living. But they knew well that he liked to collect expensive cars and set off fireworks at all hours.
At an age when most of his peers could barely afford a new car, Smith was amassing a collection that would include BMWs, a Ferrari, a Jaguar. When other 20-somethings were trying to save for down payments on modest starter homes, Smith paid $1.1 million for a house in a more affluent suburb.
Smith got all that through his successes in massive unsolicited e-mail marketing, authorities say. The Spamhaus Project, an anti-spam group, considered him one of the world’s worst offenders.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofindia.indiatimes.com ...
Interesting that this is from the Times of India. India is where most of the drug-spam I get is coming from. And most of the annoying telemarketers are calling from India too.
As to the article, I suspect people in India, China, etc are having a field with this info because they know it has no effect on them. Just makes more money for them.
LOL.
I get a variety of spam, usually about 20 or 30 a day, but most of it these days is for drugs, vicodin and cialis.
I have a pretty good freeware spam filter, Spampal, which I set to throw this stuff into the discard folder, to be deleted when I close Outlook Express. I usually inspect it before throwing it out, because once in a while it intercepts a legitimate email. I'm very grateful for the feature in WinXP SP-2 that now blocks email graphics unless you choose to download them, so I don't have to look out gross-out pictures when I check them out.
Actually, I just checked this morning's mail, and the chief subject seems to be teeth whitening. Better than porn, I guess.
Has spamming always been illegal?
Almost all of my spam is for prescription type drugs, and also a little on mortgages. They always have a goofy "subject" message. Gibberish. I get about 10 per day. No more porn, for some reason.
No. It became illegal in the past couple years as the volume began to clog the internet and the government finally figured out that it was a hindrance to the existance of the internet.
I've used Gmail for about six months now. I don't get spam.
alpha beta charlie darwin ecosystem falala goboygo hahaha icylite joker kookoo lalaland moomoo nonono ohshitsky (etc)
So if people made money before it was illegal, then everything they bought with it, should be theirs.
A nastier side of me wants his fate to be the same as the notorious Russian spammer.
Much less porn than there used to be, but still a bit. Yes, I also get those low interest loan offers, and a fair number of false "returned by postmaster" messages. But nary a virus since last spring's epidemic.
The funny spelling is meant to defeat bad word filters, but it seems pretty feeble to me.
What folks need to understand about the Internet is that it is fundamentally a broadcast medium, one capable of destroying ALL information monopolies, knowledge will no longer be filtered by our counterparts to the midieval Church, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc. This is also why we have a last ditch effort on the part of midieval relligions to keep from being assimilated into the info tsunami where people educate themselves and human intellect is finally freed from the shackles of ideology.
The next dot com revolution will come in the form of portal sites and programs that tailor your info uptake according to your outlook and sense of adventure.
Walter
/////////////////////////////////////////
walter alter artist - wiseguy - savant
____________________________
PORTFOLIO: http://infojockey.tripod.com/
PSYOPS: www.fortunecity.com/victorian/mill/1189
You have to visit porn sites in order to get the spam. If you aren't getting any porn, it's because you or anyone using your pc doesn't go porn browsing. Another way to find yourself on porn lists (and viruses too) is to visit some of those hack sites, when your looking for a crack or key code.
Real jerk! He was just begging for something to happen to him. I think the power went to his head and the feds cut it off.
The newest technique seems to be intentionally mispelling the hot words-- like "Presc!ption" and "Mort-gage", etc to get by the word filters.
I hate these guys.
Does it make me a bad person to say that if his house caught on fire and killed him, I wouldn't be sad?
Not that I am advocated it or anything. Just stating a fact!
I'm sure his lawyers will argue the same thing.
Probably so.
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