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*** US 'Spam King' New Slick Face Of Cyber Crime ***

San Francisco, CA -- 06/20/2007
They call him the "Spam King," but Robert Soloway is an unlikely figure
accused of flooding computers with emails promoting everything from
sex aids and p*n*s enlargements to "pump-and-dump" stock schemes.

Far from being an introverted computer nerd, Soloway dined at fine
restaurants, threw hip parties, drove a Mercedes convertible and wore
designer clothes.

And US officials are now branding him the king of one of the most vexing
phenomenons of this interconnected, computerized world -- the tide of
unwanted spam swamping email in-boxes.

"He was a con man living quite a lavish lifestyle," Assistant US Attorney
Kathryn Warma told AFP after Soloway, 27, was arrested in Seattle,
Washington, late last month.

"He does not fit the image of a geek in the
basement surrounded by Doritos bags."

Warma convinced a federal judge to keep Soloway in jail without bail
while he awaits trial on charges of fraud, identity theft and money
laundering.

Soloway had made at least a million dollars from his spam empire since
relocating to Washington state in 2003, according to IRS agent Sylvia
Reyes.

But when FBI agents raided his 17th-floor apartment on Seattle's
picturesque Puget Sound after his arrest May 30 they found one
lone, unimpressive computer.

"That wasn't a highly powered, screaming computer or even
a high-end laptop as one would expect to see," Warma said.

Soloway used a second bedroom as an office from which he ran an
elusive and profitable spamming operation, according to federal agents.

He promoted his Newport Internet Marketing firm as a way for businesses
to swiftly increase sales five-fold with his "broadcast email" service or by
buying his software to send messages themselves.

He sold spamming kits for 149 dollars each, agents said.

Soloway rented servers then used a "Dark Mail" program to send
bulk emails and disguise where they came from and who sent them.

The unsolicited email was delivered through "botnets," networks of
online computers hijacked by "botherders," hackers that amass armies
of "zombie" machines by infecting them with malicious codes without the
owners' knowledge.

It was a great money-spinner. Police found closets stuffed with
designer clothes, including Prada, Gucci, Armani and Versace.

Among his belongings confiscated as "proceeds of crime" were scores of
sport coats and suit jackets, an Armani wristwatch and two dozen pairs of
designer sunglasses.

"He threw great parties in his pad, wore cool clothes and drove a hot car,"
Warma said. "It was a way for him to promote his criminal activity."

Among the complaints that led federal officials to Soloway were those
from his customers, who said his services and software didn't give the
promised results.

"Just because people paid him money
doesn't mean it worked," Warma said.

Soloway changed "cyber bank" and Internet financial transaction
accounts frequently and drained his funds routinely, according to
Warma.

And despite his expensive lifestyle, agents who executed search
warrants at four of Soloway's bank accounts, could find only 5,000
dollars.

In testimony Soloway gave during a lawsuit filed against him by Microsoft
in 2005 he said he was his company's sole employee and that he started
the business in California when he was 16 years old.

"It's the only employment I've had in my life," court documents quote
Soloway as saying. "So you could say I've never worked for anybody."

Microsoft won the civil trial and Soloway was ordered to pay the
company seven million dollars in damages for spamming abuses.

But Soloway bragged in online chat rooms that the world's
largest company would never get its court-ordered award.

"No one is ever going to touch me," Soloway boasted while discussing
the Microsoft case in an online message forum prior to his arrest.

"I've been in business over 10 years with the best accountants in the
world and lawyers in all 50 states. I always win ... losing is not an option."
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