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DO FEDERAL SENTENCING GUIDELINES ALLOW FOR FIRE ANTS?

March 18, 2008

The man who "authorities have described as the 'King of Spam'" has pleaded guilty to tax charges. Robert Soloway, 28, of Seattle, pleaded guilty to tax evasion last week, according this report. From a Justice Department press release:

As part of the scheme, SOLOWAY spammed tens of millions of email messages to advertise the NIM websites from which he sold his product and services. Soloway constantly “moved” this website, which was hosted on at least 50 different domains. In at least one instance SOLOWAY used another person’s credit card to pay for the domain name used to host the NIM website. Since 2006, SOLOWAY registered the domain names through Chinese Internet Service Providers in an apparent effort to hide the true ownership of the domain names used to host the NIM website. The spammed messages used to advertise the NIM websites contained false and fraudulent header information, and were relayed using networks of proxy computers (“botnets”) to disguise the true originating IP addresses of the spam. Many of the false headers contained forged e-mail addresses or domain names that belonged to other real people, businesses, or organizations, causing these other innocent parties to mistakenly be blamed for spam transmitted by Soloway. Innocent parties whose email addresses and domain names were forged by SOLOWAY sometimes had their legitimate addresses “blacklisted” as spam sources, as a result. SOLOWAY refused to remove email addresses from his distribution lists, leaving some victims with no choice but to close their email accounts or cancel established domain names to stop the spamming.

While we are all heartbroken by the fall of a spammer, we console ourselves with our continued receipt of valuable offers in many languages for things that will help us grow more hair and make her love us more than other men.

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