Spam Kings (31 page)

Under the rules of chess, a player can claim a draw if fifty consecutive moves occur in
the match without a piece being captured or a pawn moved. Throughout the spring and early
summer of 2004, Davis Hawke seemed to hope the "Fifty Moves Rule" would end his legal
problems with America Online.

As AOL made a succession of maneuvers against him in Virginia's Eastern District federal
court, Hawke retreated to the back streets of Pawtucket.
^[
13
]
He phoned AOL's attorneys Archie and Praed a few times to ask questions about
the case. But then he'd go silent and flagrantly ignore court dates. From time to time,
Hawke would pop up on the Internet to send out a run of cell phone spam. After that, he'd
vanish for days, apparently having generated enough cash to keep going.

Hawke had been living in a succession of motels ever since an incident the week after he
received AOL's summons. Hawke had spotted AOL's private investigator in his driveway, trying
to attach something to the underside of the Crown Vic. Hawke assumed it was a
global-positioning-system (GPS) device for tracking him. The next day, he moved out of the
Black Plain Road house and abandoned the car.
^[
14
]

The cell phone spams, especially the ones advertising mortgage refinancing, were
beginning to bring in some decent cash. Hawke decided he didn't need to spam AOL, and it was
a good time for a fire sale with the AOL member database. Using the alias Mark, he boldly
sent his bulk-friendly mailing list a message bearing the subject line, "Super Secret Email
List for Sale." The spam offered an eight-million-address list for $8,000, or sets of one
million addresses for $1,500:

To throw AOL and other anti-spammers off his tracks, Hawke had begun registering domains
under the name "Bubba Catts" and a bogus Louisiana mailing address. Later, his domain
registrations included the name and address of the bank in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to
which Hawke owed money. For the name of the domain's registrant, Hawke listed Thomas P.
Barnum. Hawke also sprayed out tens of thousands of spams selling pirated copies of the Dark
Mailer
program. Hawke signed the spamware ads using the name of south-Florida spam
king Eddy Marin.
^[
15
]

Hawke temporarily stopped advertising the AOL list in June 2004, after federal agents
arrested two men on charges that they had stolen AOL's entire customer database in 2003 for
use in spamming. Jason Smathers, a former AOL technician, and Sean Dunaway, an alleged
spammer, each faced up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for their part in the
conspiracy to misappropriate the database. Prosecutors said they cracked the case with the
help of an unidentified informant. The source (Bournival) was said to be a spammer who was
the subject of a 2004 AOL lawsuit. The informant had purchased a copy of the list from
Dunaway and used it to sell herbal penile-enlargement pills, authorities said.

Suddenly, Hawke's endgame with AOL wasn't the only case that required his attention. Now
he was potentially facing criminal charges over his brazen attempts to sell the AOL member
database. Concerned that FBI agents might be following him, Hawke cut off his
shoulder-length hair and shaved his head. But soon he was back on SpecialHam.com, under the
username MrLucky, offering to sell an AOL address list for $6,000.

Then, at the end of June, fresh legal problems arrived. A private investigator hired by
Verizon Wireless left a summons on the windshield of Jacob Brown's blue Oldsmobile while it
was parked outside 40 Crescent Road in Pawtucket. (Brown had taken over Hawke's old
apartment when he moved out.) The summons informed Brown that Verizon Wireless was suing him
and fifty unidentified "John Does" in a New Jersey federal court. The cell phone provider
accused Brown and the others of inundating its subscribers with over four million cell phone
spams since March 2004.

Hawke was undaunted by the fact that he might soon be dragged into the
litigation.
^[
16
]
In July 2004, he spammed his bulk-friendly list with an ad that began, "Become
an cellphone spammer." The spam advertised a $1,000 kit with "everything you need to start
mass mailing text messages instantly." The ad, which was signed "Eddy M," included an
unusual revelation as proof the offer was legitimate:

A few days later, Hawke decided it was time for a breather. He drove north to his
favorite spot in New Hampshire—Tuckerman's Ravine, on the southeast shoulder of Mount
Washington—for a hike with Dreighton
.

The summer of 2004 was shaping up as one of the coolest and rainiest on record in New
England. As Hawke picked his way in a drizzle along the Lion Head trail, he contemplated
leaving the country altogether for someplace warm and dry—Algiers, perhaps. Loay Samhoun,
his former number-one Pinacle affiliate, had already fled to Lebanon to avoid litigation
from AOL.
^[
17
]

But with almost all of his money in greenbacks, Hawke knew he had serious portability
problems. Somehow, he'd need to get the cash into bank accounts, but he worried that those
deposits might trigger investigations and put him at risk. Hawke figured he could disappear
somewhere else in the U.S. and start over under a new identity. He could use his cash to buy
and sell real estate. Or he could earn a living playing poker.

But Hawke decided to remain in Rhode Island a while longer. His only friends—Mauricio,
Mike Clark, and the others—were there, and Patricia was serious about her grad school
program. But something else made him want to stay put.

Hawke had tried running from failure in the past, and it got him branded a coward and a
loser. This time, he wasn't going to slink out a window in the middle of the night. He was
going to go down with guns blazing. He might not be the biggest spammer in history, but
Hawke was going to make sure he was the most outrageous one of all time.

The mist lifted suddenly, allowing Hawke a glimpse of the Mount Washington valley below
the grey ceiling of clouds. He vowed he would retire from spamming after he made a little
more money. Until then, he'd stick to his credo:
I'm going to be dead for a very
long time. Every moment counts
.

A special subcommittee of the United Nations
called an urgent meeting in July 2004. The team of international experts convened
in Geneva, Switzerland, to formulate battle plans against what one leader called "a disease
which has spread around the world. We have an epidemic on our hands which we need to
control."

The UN committee was not charged with fighting AIDS or SARS or hepatitis. The experts, all
part of a working group of the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
, were there to defeat spam. According to the ITU, spam costs nations worldwide
$25 billion each year.

Yet the international team was confident that, with the right technology and international
cooperation, spam could be brought under control by 2006.

As of this writing (September, 2004), the global spam problem appears to be getting little
help from CAN-SPAM. The volume of junk email hitting in-boxes has risen since the new U.S. law
took effect on January 1, 2004. (Spam-filtering firm Brightmail
says spam now composes 65 percent of email traffic, up from 60 percent in
January.)

Meanwhile, few junk emailers are complying with the new regulations. One study declared
that less than 3 percent of all spam is fully in compliance with CAN-SPAM. Another analysis
found that even legitimate marketers are slow to adhere to the law. Only 36 percent of the
email offers from mainstream companies meets CAN-SPAM's requirements.

Yet in Australia
, a tougher, opt-in spam law seems to be making a difference. Just months after
the enactment of Australia's Spam Act of 2003, several of the country's larger spam outfits
appear to have closed up shop. (Failure to comply with the law, which prohibits spamming
consumers without their consent, can result in penalties of up to AU$1.1 million per day for
repeat offenders.) Admittedly, Australia isn't a significant source of junk email; the nation
isn't even on Spamhaus's list of the top ten spam countries. But Spamhaus director Steve
Linford and other spam opponents are taking heart.

"Governments looking to get it right and implement effective legislation need look in one
direction only—follow Australia!" wrote Linford in a July 2004 statement at
Spamhaus.org.

The first half of 2004 also saw a number of promising developments in defeating spam
through technology. More consumers recognize that equipping their computers with
spam-filtering programs is just as important to online hygiene as using anti-virus software.
At the same time, several major ISPs and software manufacturers are looking to new technology
in the fight against email forgery at the server level. Many have already taken steps to adopt
systems designed to verify a message's true source. One solution, based on technology known as
Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
, has the backing of Microsoft and AOL, among others. Another option, the Trusted
Email Open Standard (TEOS)
, adds encoded data to message headers to help email users sort out incoming spam
from legitimate email.

But the pernicious root of the spam crisis does not appear to be legislative or
technological. It is human—in particular, the humans who buy from spammers.

The ability to move relatively incognito online may have created a perfect medium for
surreptitious e-marketers such as Davis Hawke and the rest of the two-hundred-plus spammers
listed on the Spamhaus Rokso list. But the Internet has also engendered a corresponding
segment of consumers. Call them
furtive shoppers
.

Why does so much spam tout penis pills, pornography, black-market software, multilevel
marketing schemes, and other illicit products and services not generally available in offline
stores? It's not just because legitimate, ethical marketers have mostly eschewed email
advertising or are having their messages drowned out by pitches from the likes of Amazing
Internet Products. Blame it on junk email's customer base. After all, as Hawke's evolving
product portfolio shows, spammers sell whatever people will buy from them.

The Internet didn't invent plain, brown-wrapper deliveries. But spam provides Internet
users with new levels of anonymous access to the dodgiest of items. By double-clicking a
hyperlink in a spam message, consumers can order cable descramblers, "free" government grants,
and fake diplomas. Thanks to junk email, any consumer with an Internet connection and a credit
card now has access to raunchy, and in some cases illegal, porn without the inconvenience of
having to drive to the nearest adult bookstore. From the privacy of their homes or offices,
spam recipients can get nonprescription access to controlled drugs via the web sites of
fly-by-night apothecaries on servers in South America.

If email were around during the Prohibition
, you can bet that spammers would have been selling moonshine.

In an effort to cut off junk emailers from their customers, an international trade group
known as the Internet Industry Association (IIA)
unveiled an unusual initiative in late 2003. Known as the "Hit Delete" campaign,
the IIA's effort was essentially a boycott. According to the group, which included AOL,
Yahoo!, Microsoft, and other major Internet firms, the best way to discourage spammers is not
to buy from them.

"If enough users started hitting the delete key on questionable, unsolicited offers, the
commercial case for spamming will soon erode," said an IIA press release. But less than a year
later, the Hit Delete campaign's web site has been dismantled, its user education program
apparently a bust.

Such efforts seem doomed to failure, as long as junk email successfully taps into
consumers' private hopes and dreams for themselves. According to Latham & Watkins
cyber lawyer Jennifer Archie, who has studied more than her share of junk email, spam reveals
something profound about the American consumer psyche.

"People say, 'I can have a university degree overnight. The government is going to give me
money, not take it away. I can be thinner and more virile. I can have better sex.' Something
about email gives them hope it's all possible," said Archie.

Maybe Davis Hawke was right about one thing: some people
are
stupid.

As this book was going to press,
Davis Hawke
was still
living somewhere in Rhode Island. He continues to frequent online spammer forums using a
variety of aliases. He also persists in sending spam and selling mailing lists. A federal
court has ruled Hawke in default on AOL's lawsuit against him. The ISP has asked the court to
order Hawke to pay AOL in excess of $10 million in damages resulting from his spams.

Brad Bournival
, also awaiting the resolution of the AOL
litigation, is believed to be close to an out-of-court settlement. Currently unemployed, he is
living off his savings and devoting more time to chess. He intends to move out of his
5,300-square-foot rented home into a smaller, less expensive place.

The whereabouts of
Jacob Brown
and
Mauricio Ruiz
are unknown. Both are in default on the spam lawsuits
pending against them. In August 2004, a judge permanently enjoined Brown from spamming Verizon
Wireless customers.

Susan "Shiksaa
" Gunn
remains a volunteer for the Spamhaus Project. She continues to
be an infrequent contributor to the Nanae newsgroup.

Director
Steve Linford
announced in June 2004 that
Spamhaus would begin charging its biggest customers a subscription fee for the previously free
spam-blocking service. Earlier in 2004, Linford was honored by the British Internet Service
Providers Association, which named him its "Internet Hero" of 2004.

In July 2004, the office of the New York Attorney General announced a settlement with
Scott Richter
. Under the deal, Richter agreed to pay the
state $50,000 in fines and legal expenses and to allow state officials to regularly audit
aspects of his business. Richter's suit from Microsoft is still pending. In April 2004,
Richter sued the SpamCop spam-reporting service for $1 million, alleging trade libel and
tortious interference. In September 2004, SpamCop announced it had settled the lawsuit, with
neither party making any changes to its practices. In June, Richter announced he was
abandoning plans to market a line of "Spam King" apparel after receiving warnings from Hormel,
owners of the SPAM trademark.

George Alan "Dr. Fatburn
" Moore
settled litigation with AOL and Symantec in December 2003. He
is currently buying and selling real estate, as well as running a multilevel marketing program
for diet pills and other health products from his web site, UltimateDiets.com.

Jason Vale
was sentenced to sixty-three months in
federal prison in June 2004 for criminal contempt. Vale is currently serving his sentence in
the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center but has reportedly asked for a transfer to a
penitentiary in Florida. Vale has said he will not accept traditional medical treatment,
including surgery, for the tumor in his back.

Karen Hoffmann
continues to serve as an email marketing
and abuse desk consultant to several clients.

Thomas Cowles
is awaiting a September 2004 retrial in
Florida's Broward County Court. In June 2004, a hung jury was unable to come up with a verdict
on the third-degree grand theft charges against him. Cowles and his firm, Empire Towers,
remain on the Spamhaus Rokso list, a position they have held since October 2000.

David P. D'Amato
(a.k.a. Terri Tickle
) was released from prison in February 2002. He is believed to be living somewhere
in New York State, where he holds a permanent teaching certificate, according to officials
with the New York School Education Department.

Rob Mitchell
is a full-time public school teacher in
Texas. Heno longer frequents Nanae or fights spam.

Rodona Garst
was sued for stock fraud by the Securities
and Exchange Commission in July 2002. In December of that year, she settled the lawsuit by
agreeing to pay $15,673 to the U.S. Treasury, an amount representing her profits from the
pump-and-dump scheme.

Ronnie Scelson
claims he is sending out up to 40
million CAN-SPAM-compliant junk emails per day. He told members of the U.S. Congress in May
2004 that he was recently forced to move his office into a former nuclear fallout shelter due
to threats and harassment from anti-spammers.

Andrew Brunner
was removed from the Spamhaus Rokso list
in late 2001. Brunner continues to sell Avalanche bulk email software from his site,
CyberCreek.com.

For the past two years,
Sanford Wallace
has been
operating Club Plum Crazy
, a popular nightclub in Rochester, New Hampshire. In 2004, Wallace moved to Las
Vegas, where he hopes to open the area's first chemical-free nightclub for people aged
eighteen to twenty.