Ethics Newsline®

SEATTLE
In a crackdown designed to keep the world’s inboxes from being clogged with stock tips and pharmaceutical come-ons, federal authorities last week arrested the Seattle man dubbed the “Spam King.”

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Robert Soloway, who is accused of making more than $1 million over four years by sending millions of pieces of spam, was indicted on charges including identity theft, money laundering, and mail fraud.

According to court papers cited by the Post-Intelligencer, prosecutors accuse Soloway of firing off about 120 million spam emails to nearly 80,000 addresses over a three-month period using a controversial software program that lets users join a network of zombie computers unknowingly conscripted to send spam via embedded spyware. Such an arrangement offers the original spammer virtual anonymity.

The Reuters news agency reports that authorities recently have stepped up efforts to can spam, which is estimated to comprise three-quarters of all email and frustrate users.

According to an analysis from Forbes, one research firm estimates that the total cost of spam in eaten-up bandwidth and lost productivity for 2007 will top about $45 billion in the United States and $100 billion worldwide.

Adding to the burden of spam is the fact that spammers often hijack the email addresses of legitimate users, resulting in false accusations of authoring the junk email — and sometimes having their legitimate emails blocked by Internet filters — reports the technology news agency ZDNet.

Soloway pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bail pending another court appearance.