Via ComputerWorld.com -
May 30, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- A Seattle man was arrested Wednesday morning for illegal spamming activities.
The arrest follows an indictment (download PDF) by a federal grand jury in Seattle last week.
The indictment charges Robert Alan Soloway and his company, Newport Internet Marketing Corp., with fraudulently selling broadcast e-mail products and services that amounted to spam. The U.S. attorney's office for the Western District of Washington referred to Soloway as a "spam king" for the volume of unsolicited commercial e-mail his company produced. He is charged with mail fraud, identity theft, fraud and money laundering,
Soloway advertised a mass e-mail service that sent messages to an opt-in list of addresses but didn't actually use such a permission-based list, the indictment said. He also sold software products that customers could use themselves to send out mass e-mails. However, the product often didn't work, and if it did, it sent e-mails using forged headers. He also failed to offer promised support services, according to the court documents.
In addition, when customers complained, Soloway threatened additional fees and referral to a collection agency.
Soloway is also accused of sending out tens of millions of e-mails, often using forged e-mail addresses and domains in the "from" line, advertising his services. As a result, some people who legitimately owned the e-mail address or domain were blamed for the spam and were blacklisted by Internet service providers.
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