Trial of Spam King to Commence in March

The trial of the spam king, Robert Soloway, will be held on March 24, 2008 at the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, as reported by ComputerWorld on February 29, 2008.

Robert, accused for sending innumerous illegitimate e-mails, was arrested by the officials in May. The number if illegal mails was so huge that the authorities termed him as "Spam King", as reported by NETWORKWORLD on February 29, 2008.

As per the investigators investing the Robert's case, his arrest is a major victory in the battle against spam. Prosecutors also claimed that the illegitimate e-mails from Soloway were sent out with the help of "zombie" systems infected with botnet software.

The United States Attorney Office also told that Robert Soloway is not only fined for huge amounts ($770,000) but also being accused of ID theft and charges of fraud that could lead to imprisonment.

A Senior Attorney with Microsoft, Aaron Kornblum, said that Robert is facing charges under the law of 2003 CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act). Aaron also added that Soloway case can stand out as an instance for other spammers and hackers, as reported by ComputerWorld on February 29, 2008.

Aaron also claimed that it is significant to note that in the US, there are not a huge number of criminals under CAN -SPAM prosecutions. He also added that if the attorneys of the US can extract money from Soloway, it will be the first time. Interestingly, in 2005, Microsoft got an award of around $7.8 Million judgment against the king of spam but they have not collected it yet.

Aaron also said that till today, Microsoft has registered almost 131 lawsuits against many spammers in the US. Majority of them have resulted in a negotiable settlement against the spammer. Out of those cases, around 52 of them left open or have been rejected.

Further, Robert is not just one spammer who is going to face trial in Seattle in March 2008. One more high profile case is going to come up in March 2008. It is a civil case against Impulse Media Group, which is accused of spamming systems with obscene mails by the US Department of Justice.

Related article: Trial Security Update is Malicious Trojan, Warns Microsoft

» SPAMfighter News - 3/11/2008