Robert Alan Soloway (born 1980) is the founder of the so-called "Strategic Partnership Against Microsoft Illegal Spam," or SPAMIS, but is said to be one of the Internet's biggest

spammers This is a list of individuals and organizations noteworthy for engaging in bulk electronic spamming, either on their own behalf or on behalf of others. It is not a list of all spammers, only those whose actions have attracted substantial independen ...

through his company, Newport Internet Marketing (NIM). He was arrested on May 30, 2007, after a

grand jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a pe ...

indicted him on charges of identity theft,

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

, and mail, wire, and e-mail

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

. He was nicknamed the "Spam King" by prosecutors.

Spamming tactics

Soloway is charged with using hijacked zombie computers and spoofing to send out millions of spam e-mails since 2003. Some e-mails sent by Soloway's company contained false header information making them appear to have been sent from

MSN MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95. The Microsoft Net ...

and Hotmail addresses. As a result of this he was sued by Microsoft and ordered to pay $7 million in damages in December 2003. He also was sued by a small

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

company and was ordered to pay $10 million in damages. However, an injunction to cease his activities did not stop him from spamming: Soloway's company was responsible, from around June 2004 until April 2005, for a spam campaign (sent from open proxies) on behalf of various websites including ''broadcastingtoday.biz'' and ''broadcastadvertise.org'' (all since suspended), which promised to send recipients' Web site addresses to several million "opt-in email addresses." He later claimed that as the service was free, the campaign was not illegal under the anti-spam law

CAN-SPAM The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act of 2003 is a law passed in 2003 establishing the United States' first national standards for the sending of commercial e-mail. The law requires the Federal Tra ...

. A disclaimer in the spams stated, "the above emailing is only free if you are a nonprofit organization that aids child abuse victims." Soloway insisted that NIM removed all MSN and Hotmail addresses from his mailing lists. He asserted that it was his company's subcontractors, or "spam affiliates", who had carried out the illegal activity (though he remained liable under both state and federal laws, including Washington's Commercial Electronic Mail Act and

). He insisted he had fired all his subcontractors (none of whom he named) and had himself taken charge of emailing, using spam program

Dark Mailer Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lu ...

. However, a Washington

superior court In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general jurisdiction over civil and criminal legal cases. A superior court is "superior" in relation to a court with limited jurisdiction (see small claims court), which is restricted to civil ...

judge ruled that Soloway was in

default Default may refer to: Law * Default (law), the failure to do something required by law ** Default (finance), failure to satisfy the terms of a loan obligation or failure to pay back a loan ** Default judgment, a binding judgment in favor of ei ...

. Soloway pleaded guilty to three counts on 14 March 2008. He formerly operated a company based in Seattle, Washington which he is calling "Broadcast E-mail Service" that offers "mailing services" by contract as well as a software program which the site promises will allow the buyer to "email your Web site to 2,500,000 opt-in email addresses for free." E-mails advertising Soloway's company have been sent with forged headers (the headers purport to be "from" the person they were sent "to"). Soloway reportedly switched IP addresses for his Web sites to avoid detection. In 2006 he registered them through

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

internet service providers An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privatel ...

(ISP) in an apparent ploy to mask his involvement.

Legal troubles

2005 judgments

In 2005, Microsoft won a $7.8 million civil judgment against Soloway, for spam sent through MSN and Hotmail services. That money, however, was never collected because Soloway's bank accounts remained elusive. Later in 2005, Robert Braver, an internet services provider based in Oklahoma, was awarded $10,075,000.00 in another spam-related case against Soloway. In this lawsuit, a permanent injunction was issued against Soloway, enjoining him from further spam activities. Those judgments, however, did not stop Soloway's illegal spamming; in fact, he mocked them.

Arrested in May 2007

He was arrested on May 30, 2007, after a federal grand jury indicted him on 35 charges including mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, identity theft and money laundering. If convicted as charged, he could have faced decades in prison. Prosecutors wanted to seize $773,000 that Soloway made from his firm.

Pleaded guilty in March 2008

On March 14, 2008, Robert Soloway reached an agreement with federal prosecutors, two weeks before his scheduled trial on 40 charges. Soloway pleaded guilty to three charges—felony mail fraud, fraud in connection with e-mail, and failing to file a 2005 tax return. In exchange, federal prosecutors dropped all other charges. Soloway faced up to 27 years in prison on the most serious charge, and up to $625,000 total in fines.

Prison sentence

On 22 July 2008 Robert Soloway was sentenced to 47 months in

federal prison A federal prison is operated under the jurisdiction of a federal government as opposed to a state or provincial body. Federal prisons are used for convicts who violated federal law (U.S., Mexico), inmates considered dangerous (Brazil), or those s ...

, and ordered to repay over $700,000. Prosecutors had asked for a 9-year sentence. As of March 2011, he is out of prison and on probation. Part of his probation terms include monitoring of all his email and web browsing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soloway, Robert Living people Email spammers People from Seattle American computer criminals 1980 births