Godzilla of Spam

[Taro Toporific]

[floatl][/floatl]
Japan brings down Godzilla of spam
---Old skool spam suspect taken in---
The Register - 19th February 2008 15:23 GMT---Japanese police have arrested a "prolific spammer" who allegedly bombarded inboxes with hundreds of millions of messages punting internet gambling and dating sites.
Investigators reckon Yuki Shiina, 25, sent as many as 2.2 billion spam messages using what appears to be rudimentary spamming techniques. He allegedly purchased a list of 600,000 email addresses for a pricey 100,000 yen ($927), earning 2m yen ($18,540) through a subsequent spamming campaign...more...

[Catoneinutica]

Interesting comment at The Register link:

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Speaking as one of the targets
By Shannon Jacobs
Posted Tuesday 19th February 2008 21:24 GMT
Thumb Up

Actually, I suspect this may have been the guy I've been harassed by for years. I'm still not sure how he got my email address in the first place, but I've always suspected that his real scam was charging for advertising. He probably wasn't a yakuza himself, but kind of an affiliate providing advertising services for the yakuza's prostitutes and loan shark operations. Some days he'd send 50 spams, often repeating the same "ads" over and over again.

Assuming it's the same guy, then his websites have been becoming increasingly mobile over the last year, though he's switched from using dynamic DNS services to using registered domains. His original scam was apparently rather too complex, especially when one of his international DNS suppliers switched his DNS records to point at the website of the Japanese National Police Agency. I rather hope that startled a few of his wannabe customers--and I don't think he ever used that DNS again. There was also a Danish guy who simply gave me a special account that I could use to cancel the spammer's DNS records. Another service the spammer quickly abandoned--but he kept right on searching for new ones.
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/19/japan_spam_godzilla_arrest/comments/

[Greji]

Actually, I suspect this may have been the guy I've been harassed by for years. I'm still not sure how he got my email address in the first place, but I've always suspected that his real scam was charging for advertising. He probably wasn't a yakuza himself, but kind of an affiliate providing advertising services for the yakuza's prostitutes and loan shark operations. Some days he'd send 50 spams, often repeating the same "ads" over and over again.

Take, you been back online again?

[james]

i have no love for spammers, in fact i think they should all be hung up by their collective EngorgedFukStiks and force fed c1al1s until they rupture. i really think however that a certain onus of the prolific problem of spam lies with the general public.

allegedly purchased a list of 600,000 email addresses for a pricey 100,000 yen ($927), earning 2m yen ($18,540) through a subsequent spamming campaign..

the fact that it remains as commercially viable as it is, is what keeps the whole spam industry going. from a spammer's point of view, it's really hard to argue with those returns. i think even rob would agree with that.

if it weren't so lucrative, ie if that 1 moron in x number of thousands of people didn't buy the crap they're peddling in the first place, i think it'd die off fairly quickly. no one's going to spend $1000 on a list of addresses for the potential to make half that. they will though to potentially make 20x.