Spam King Arrested

We need more stories like this.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - US prosecutors said they captured on Wednesday a nefarious Internet marketer responsible so much junk e-mail they called him "Spam King."
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.
Soloway is accused of using "botnets," networks of computers, to disguise where e-mail originated and of forging return addresses of real people or businesses that wound up blamed for unwanted mailings.
If convicted as charged, Soloway will face a maximum sentence of more than 65 years in prison and a fine of 250,000 dollars.
Prosecutors want to seize approximately 773,000 dollars they say Soloway made from his spamming-related activities.

I really don't understand why ISP's are not more aggressive in blocking spam, instead of just giving their subscribers spam filters and tools. Spam takes up server space and bandwidth usage. This affects their bottom line. When the estimated percentage of spam for all emails sent worldwide is between 80 and 93 percent, wouldn't it be more cost-effective to shut these guys down? It already costs a spammer next to nothing to send the spam, as they employ zombie armies created from exploited computers.

I would love to hear about the big ISP's efforts on catching these guys too. At least let people know you're doing something, which would be great PR, instead of slapping bandaids on everything, just so your customers' service is not interrupted. Whack-a-mole can get pretty tiring after a while, and there will be times you can't catch up, but all the time you spend trying to whack the mole, is money that could be spent on other things.

Foreign governments are also not doing enough, since cyber attacks on business and government offices affect key infrastructure in communications and transportation. Perhaps it's time to regulate these "internet marketers." This is no longer a free speech issue, but a criminal issue, involving racketeering, fraud, and theft.