Spammer gets 30 Years
Rodney 59 comments
Christopher William Smith or Rizler as he is know to some, is one of the "SPAM kings". He's run a successful "online pharmacy" (v|@grA seller) for quite some time and is as almost as notorious as spammers can get. Really successful. He accumulated more than 17 cars and millions in assets before his 28th birthday.
Well, this week, U.S. District Judge Michael Davis has sentenced Chris to 30 years in the slammer. Unfortunately, it's not really for sending SPAM.
The real reason is, Chris doesn't have a license to sell prescription drugs in the US but he's been doing it anyway. $24 million (USD) worth (which does raise the question, who the hell was buying it all?). Chris was ordered to cease selling the drugs online in a previous court case but rather than obey, he simply skipped the country and set up shop south of the border.
To do all this, he used false passports, obtained money from frozen accounts and threatened people's lives. This includes looking into hiring a hitman to take out his previous database admin, Bernadette Hollis. A truly charming fellow - everything we like to imagine a spammer to be.So that's one less spammer to worry about but probably no less spam in your inbox tomorrow.
Awesome... just awesome. Although (as stated in the article) there will probably be no noticeable difference in your spam levels, it's nice to know someone is getting what they deserve. Then again, one small part of me thinks 30 years is a little harsh.
so awsome
Saturday 4th August 2007 | 03:54 PM30 years? thats all?? that dude should have his head mounted on a stick in front of the supreme court in DC. Spammers need to know we hate them more then we hate AIDS! The feds should subsidize 100K for every hacker in the USA that shuts down a spammer through whatever means possible. theres a tax bill id vote for!
Jasmin
Saturday 4th August 2007 | 04:14 PMIs the article ID a coincidence? :-)
Fuckin' Cool
Sunday 5th August 2007 | 06:22 AM
The headline says it all... Spammer gets 30 Years... Just unbelievable fucking awesome!
Now we gotta to find more spammers so they can join him in the butt fucking prison. :)
netizen
Sunday 5th August 2007 | 06:38 AMspammers like him need to be lined up against the wall, and shot dead. consider how much better the internet would be. productivity would increase countless times over.
Bruce
Sunday 5th August 2007 | 12:48 PM
Ok, people, you are advocating ending someone's life over getting some junk mail in your inbox.
No wonder society is doomed
John
Sunday 5th August 2007 | 09:36 PMA mere scratch on the ass of spammers around the world. Hackers...attack these asshole spammers instead of innocent people.
Martin Gerner
Sunday 5th August 2007 | 09:58 PM
As others have noted before: 30 years is a bit too harsh.
Granted, SPAM (and illegal pharmaceuticals) is a large problem - not just for consumers, but even for ISP's.
However, put things into perspective. I mean, come on - how bad is that junk mail for you? Really?
I get quite a bit, but my filters take them and I don't really need to concern myself with them.
Rodney
Sunday 5th August 2007 | 10:09 PM
Hi Martin,
If you read the post above, you'll see he didn't get 30 years for sending SPAM.
He got 30 years for:
* Selling prescription drugs without a license, AFTER being ordered to stop.
* Fraud (accesing frozen funds).
* Tax evasion.
* Threatening lives and attempting to hire a hitman.
So while we'd all like to see "spammers in the slammer", that's not the real story in this case. It was probably tax evasion that got him the most time.
There are, however, some spammers who have gotten time for the SPAM they've sent. I'll see if I can dig up a list.
It's easy to ask "how hard is it to deal with occasional spam?", but the reason penalties are so high have little to do with the annoyance factor to you and I.
It is because of the hundreds of millions of dollars that go into combating the issue each year. It is because of the lost productivity people in business experience due to having to weed out legitimate email among spam when the spam filters fail. And it's because despite our best efforts, it is still a losing battle.
Remember spam comes in many forms, not just your inbox. This site was the target of some massive spamming at one stage and we have spent countless days implementing solutions to combat it. And when it gets beaten we have to change our strategy all over again. Do you think this sort of effort comes free? I can assure you (and so can my bank account) it doesn't.
So when I and others hear that a spammer has gone to jail for X years, don't act so surprised to learn most people think any sentence is a little light.
It doesn't matter anyway as Rodney pointed out. This guy was busted for spam related crimes, not the act of spamming.
puttputt
Monday 6th August 2007 | 06:56 AMHe is still working behind jail. I just ordered cheap viagra.
The Higher Power!
Monday 6th August 2007 | 08:32 AM
Ok, people, you are advocating ending someone's life over getting some junk mail in your inbox.
No wonder society is doomed
It's more like, he's a societal leech. All he did was scam and scheme for money, and he added nothing of value to society.
No, he did not "kill" anyone, but, still, he's a waste of a human life, so... off with his head.
"just some junk mail"... umm... the problem is a little more than just an inconvenience for us as end users. Someone has to pay for all the bandwidth that's being use for all this mail (and it really does add up).
According to an article in the Washington Post
(ugg.. my post got truncated)
According to an article in the Washington Post:
"for a company with 14,000 employees, the annual cost to fight spam is $245,000."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A17754-2003Mar12
and that was back in 2003! The cost just keeps going up every year. Who ends up paying for it? We do, as consumers. Businesses will pass the expense on to us.
So.. just an inconvenience? No, I think it's a lot more than that. In my opinion the reason punishments aren't more harsh for this is because of just that kind of whats-the-big-deal line of thinking.
30 years would have been just fine for just the spam, if you ask me.
Rodney
Monday 6th August 2007 | 02:28 PM
When I used to work in I.T. at Murdoch Uni (left at end of 2005), we had more than 50% of inbound email traffic to the uni as SPAM. That's a lot of messages and a lot of traffic, for a community of some 25,000 people.
Since then the figures have gotten worse. It's not just bandwidth costs. The hardware costs to filter that mail for that many people are astronomical. Without filters, many of the long term staffers got in excess of 1,000 spam a day, making email essentially unusable.
ritsl
Monday 6th August 2007 | 04:36 PMChristopher William Smith, 27, who ran Xpress Pharmacy, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, according to a court clerk in an interview. Assistant U.S. Attorney James Alexander told InformationWeek that prosecutors asked for a higher sentence because Smith made a death threat against a witness' children.
Tom
Tuesday 7th August 2007 | 12:20 AMIf all he'd done was spam and illegally sell drugs, I'd say 30 years is way too extreme... But for trying to have someone killed, illegally skipping court and country, illegally obtaining money, AND spamming / illegally selling drugs? Righteous.
dave
Tuesday 7th August 2007 | 05:34 AMI think these type of people should have to ingest a pound of their best selling product as punishment, anyone agree?
mike
Tuesday 7th August 2007 | 05:37 AMWhat are you talking about there is no such thing as occasional spam anymore it is like a disease, it costs incalculable bandwidth, and billions of dollars every year to sort through spam on your personal computer, I cant wait till spam becomes a terrorist act, hell everything else is, why not have a useful terrorism law.
Weber
Tuesday 7th August 2007 | 06:05 AMAll good points. Here is my question. What morons are actually buying drugs from their inbox ? Yeah buddy, someone has your good intentions in mind.. spend away !
Xooxer
Tuesday 7th August 2007 | 07:54 AM
I'm just pleased to know that it's his anus recieving unwanted spam now. :D Pretty boys like him usually don't remain virgins for long. Not to mention, going to prison for something so inane will not go over well with his new murderous, raping addict cellmates.
Perfect irony would be if his cellmate was also a client! :D
30 years isn't good enough for any spammer. Minimum sentencing should begin at Life without Parole.
~X
Rodney
Tuesday 7th August 2007 | 10:54 AMI'm with Weber... I totally cannot understand why there is a market for this stuff. I cannot comprehend someone buying this junk from their mailbox from a stranger? Who would give their credit card out like that? Furthermore, with most of the SPAM I still get, there's no actual way to contact the idiot sending it anyway (reply address is faked and there are no contact details), so I really don't see the point??
AtoZWealth
Wednesday 8th August 2007 | 11:54 AMIt's totally unfair, the guy just found a profitable way to make extra income. And wanting to keep on being profitable caused him to became desperate resulting in bad moral decisions. 30years is too unreasonable, a probation is better with counseling to help guide his talents to become a benefit to mankind.
@ AtoZWealth
I would dare say if he wasn't a notorious spammer the punishment might not have been so harsh. Internet politics played a big part.
Rodney
Wednesday 8th August 2007 | 12:47 PMAtoZWealth, are you saying you'd advocate probation only for fraud, theft, tax evasion and conspiracy to murder? Remember, SPAM was the least of his crimes.. Remember this guy looked into hiring a hitman to kill a child, to shut up a witness.
hmg
Wednesday 8th August 2007 | 04:21 PMsoo, if he left the country to keep spamming, then why the hell did he come back, and if he didn't then he didn't really get 30 years did he
Rodney
Wednesday 8th August 2007 | 04:40 PMIt says he got caught smuggling money into the country, so I guess he did come back in. As to why? Your guess is as good as mine? Guess some people just aren't that bright. Or he figured he'd get away with it.
John
Thursday 9th August 2007 | 12:44 PMWhy do a lot of people call for Spammers to be 'lined up against a wall and then shot'? That's too easy. Make those motherf_cks suffer. 30+ years sound about right of constant anal violation.
Lemonlime
Friday 10th August 2007 | 01:46 AMHe was sentanced to 30 years for selling drugs illegally online. What is impossible to measure is the number of people that have died or that have done irreversible damage to their bodies as a result of taking unpresribed medications. Hope he gets butt fucked by the biggest Nigger in da Jail..asshole.
NWA
Friday 10th August 2007 | 01:50 AM
Wonder what it feels like to get 12 inches of black man meat up your small intestine?
Ask William! (Hope he saved a few Vicoden Es's..he's gonna need them)..Holla!
joe
Friday 10th August 2007 | 10:31 PMIs that picture a mugshot? Is he smiling for a mugshot? That little punk deserves another five years just for that.
Spamnomore
Saturday 11th August 2007 | 07:15 AMLet's hope this pretty boy is shown good time in clink
Spammy
Sunday 12th August 2007 | 05:04 PMThe Judge also ordered that he only be fed Canned Spam, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, for the 30 Years.
Black ICE
Monday 13th August 2007 | 02:53 AMI would hire a hitman to chase down all the spammers.
eshop600
Monday 13th August 2007 | 07:46 AMnow where do I get the viagra from?
Torben
Tuesday 14th August 2007 | 12:22 PMI wonder how he looks with an overtatooed erect penis in his mout, maybe shock and despair :D
qwkinuf
Tuesday 14th August 2007 | 02:26 PM
One can only hope that if enough spammers realize they will end up being butt-slammed by Bubba if they continue to break the law, email will return to it's orginal intent.
GOD
Tuesday 14th August 2007 | 10:17 PM
If this spammer is to be sentenced 30 yrs. People making comments like "I would hire a hitman to chase down all the spammers" , "lined up against a wall and then shot'? That's too easy. Make those motherf_cks suffer. 30+ years sound about right of constant anal violation." etc etc SHOULD BE SENTENCED AT LEAST 5 Years.
Their thinking pattern shows the kind of MTFKRS they are
This society is DOOMED.
I'm glad to see a spammer off the 'streets'. But as the article reads he did not go to jail for the spam per say, rather it looks as if he was convicted on other crimes such as attempted murder, wire fraud, embezzling, and I'm various international crimes. Good for him though, he was smart enough to think of this crap, he was probably smart enough to know the consequences. So this should be no surprise to him or anyone else.
JC
Thursday 16th August 2007 | 05:47 AMThanks be to God! I had to put up with that crap for a year at my old job because they wouldn't put up a blocker.
Scott
Monday 20th August 2007 | 12:04 AMYou hate spammers more than you hate AIDS? Wow you're a moron!
beef
Saturday 25th August 2007 | 06:08 PM
dear god, let's line them up against the wall and shoot them for causing us some minor inconvenience in a system that most people could actually live without!!!
No, he didn;t go to jail for spamming, he went to jail for selling drugs, basically, and violent stuff and trying to hire someone to KILL SOMEONE. you know, crimes that ACTUALLY MATTER.
BTW1 SPAM is an entirely predictable consequence of this new technology in a capitalist world. if you buy stuff you don't need to keep you breathing then you have no right to complain because you feed the system. and really, you've all played the little "punch osama in the face" and "stomp the spider" games that pop up on the side of your favorite website. Tho mostly I'm sure you play the little "which celeb is this?" ...it's paris!!!! - games cuz you just can't resist. you're feeding the disease. read it again, memorize it, and remember it in ten years.
BTW2 Bubba is a myth, he's not getting plugged in the butt, and you all know nothing about prison but what you've been fed by a ridiculous media
john
Monday 26th November 2007 | 01:43 PMwhat a sad little man. get a real job you fuking crim
Dark Fiber
Tuesday 4th March 2008 | 06:52 PM
As long as you continue to measure success in terms of profits, you encourage these spamming vermin.
This subhuman thief was not a successful spammer. He was a piss-poor crook, and he got caught. He will learn how to appreciate the fruits of his crimes during the many decades he will spend gargling his prison wife's enhanced rod. He has only his own efforts to thank for his reward. Stop glamorizing this turd-gargler and fuck a spammer in the goat ass!
Rodeziac
Monday 15th December 2008 | 02:43 PM
If they can just shut down Canadian Pharmacy(Not the one that shows up on google). Sends me crap all the time. They set up google sites that redirect. Some of their links are bogus and I suspect the site is fraudulent.
darkvoid
Tuesday 25th May 2010 | 06:44 AM
...in response to this comment
by Bruce.
You are defending a spammer who wanted to kill his DB admin?!
That's why the world is lost!!!
Michael
Friday 3rd August 2007 | 07:52 AM...and there was much rejoice!