It never ceases to amaze me how stupid people on the internet can actually be.  It also never ceases to amaze me how gullible they are when they get their minds made up about their latest crusade.  Most often these people pursue their own agendas with little regard for facts or law.  My most recent spam experience is a perfect example.

I get, on average, about 10 spam messages per day.  Not overwhelming or cumbersome since my spam filters are quite accurate and I generally only see two or three messages per week that slip through.

I have, with increasing regularity over the last few weeks, been receiving spam about — and this is the entertaining part — possible spam from Microsoft.  To be more precise, the junk I’m getting is spoofed so that it appears to be coming from a domain called spamis.net (or .info or.biz or… well, you get the point) which, according to the spam message itself, stands for Strategic Partnership Against Microsoft Illegal Spam.

This is already entertaining.  Someone is violating the ICANN policy regarding bulk WHOIS access by third parties.  That policy specifically states that “registrar’s access agreement shall require the third party to agree not to use the data to allow, enable, or otherwise support any marketing activities, regardless of the medium used.  Such media include but are not limited to e-mail, telephone, facsimile, postal mail, SMS, and wireless alerts.”

In response to that requirement, my registrar clearly states in its WHOIS access policy that “you agree not to use this data to allow, enable, or otherwise make possible, dissemination or collection of this data, in part or in its entirety, for any purpose, such as the transmission of unsolicited advertising and solicitations of any kind, including spam.”

So, given those policies, what kind of idiot uses bulk WHOIS information to send spam about something that isn’t even happening?

Well, that idiot’s name is Robert Soloway.  He lives in Seattle, WA, and is known as one of the biggest spammers on the internet (he’s a member of the dirty dozen of top spammers).  Soloway’s Oregon-based company, Newport Internet Marketing Corporation, has sent millions of spam e-mails and has been the subject of numerous complaints and lawsuits by class action groups and Microsoft.  He lost his battle with Microsoft because he was spamming, so now he thinks this will be his revenge (see more here).

See why he’s spamming about Microsoft now, trying to make them a spammer simply by saying it in spam?

Soloway’s spam messages often contain get-rich-quick schemes selling spam software (ironic or just more internet lunacy?) and “fresh” e-mail addresses for spammers.  He like playing both sides of the fence, yes?

All of his hosted domains associated with the SPAMIS spam campaign have already been suspended by the hosting company, no doubt due to spam complaints and, one hopes, yet another criminal investigation.  Those domains include broadcastadvertise.net, spamis.net, spamis.info, spamis.com and spamis.biz.  I’m quite sure there are others, but those are the few I could find in a relatively short amount of time.

I can’t be certain, of course, whether Mr. Soloway is actually the person sending the spam since the headers are completely spoofed and full of intentionally invalid information.

I’ve been in this business long enough and have worked with internet e-mail equally long, so I know a scam when I see it — and that header is a complete scam.  Suffice it to say that the majority of the entries are forged so as to hide the real sender.  He’s obviously using zombie PCs on the internet to send his spam, another illegal activity for which I hope he gets caught.

Since Mr. Soloway doesn’t seem to want his information shared in the e-mail header, I wanted to help him out by sharing it here.  I can certainly return the favor by exposing this loser for the asshole he is.

Robert Soloway
PO Box 1259
Seattle, WA 98111
US
(206) 223-1271
(206) 223-1270

It’s safe to assume he may not be using that address anymore since, as one of the world’s leading spammers, he’s quite adept at avoiding digital footprints and trackability.  Still, one can hope…

As for some of his e-mail addresses, I’m providing them here as “mailto” links so they’ll be picked up by spam robots, crawlers and spiders — all looking for fresh addresses.  What’s good for the goose and all, right?

broadcastadvertise@address.com
contact@broadcastadvertise.net
contact@spamis.net
contact@spamis.com
contact@spamis.info (useless; the domain is unregistered)

Since these domains have been suspended already, it’s safe to assume that he’s not going to get any spam at those addresses.  It’s also safe to assume, however, that he can’t use those addresses ever again, even if the domains become live in the future, since they’ll be a permanent part of the global spam catalog of victim e-mail addresses.