Spam King' suspect seized

Feds say arrest may lead to sharp drop in illegal e-mail. May is the operative word here.

The Seattle man is accused of illegally clogging the planet's inboxes with billions of illegal e-mails using hijacked computer networks. You've probably heard from him, federal authorities say. Many times. And with his arrest, you could see an immediate decrease in the amount of spam e-mail in your inbox, they said.

One expert estimated that the man agents dubbed the "Spam King" when they arrested him Wednesday sent billions, perhaps even tens of billions, of e-mails a day.

On just two groups of servers, in just a few months, federal investigators found more than 200 million spam messages linked to 27-year-old Robert Soloway.

The online empire was run from Soloway's high-end, Harbor Steps apartment on the Seattle waterfront, investigators said. Wednesday, he appeared in court unshaven, wearing loafers with no socks, to hear Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Warma announce that if he's found guilty of the fraud, money laundering and identity theft charges in the 35-count indictment, he could spend decades behind bars.

"We know that Robert Soloway is one of the most prolific spammers in the world," Warma said before the hearing. "He has condemned them (his victims) to perpetual spam hell" unless they escape by canceling their domain names or changing their Internet protocol addresses.

So notorious is Soloway that the Internet fumes with anti-spammers worldwide livid with his alleged activities. There are endless rants, tricks on how to stop him, a Web site called "solowaysucks.net," and all sorts of personal dirt -- from Soloway's driving infractions to clues on where he went to high school to a link on how to call his mother.

"Punk," "worm," "piece of (excrement)" and "bloody gutless coward" are among the nicer epithets.

But on Wednesday, many people rejoiced.

"Busted!" wrote one anti-spam activist online. "Fantastic news," wrote another.

"It's extremely gratifying," said Neil Schwartzman, the executive director for the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, an anti-spam group. He said that Soloway not only spammed people, but targeted anti-spammers with "mail bombings."

The feds have taken steps to seize Soloway's bank accounts, but don't know yet how much money they contain.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/317795_soloway31.html