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Spammer vs. Microsoft

By Mary Landesman, About.com

Robert Soloway hates Microsoft. Or so it seems. Soloway lost a court battle to the software giant, who accused Soloway of illegal spamming. According to Brian McWilliams, investigative journalist and author of Spam Kings, Soloway is allegedly one of the world's dirty dozen of top spammers.

Most recently, Soloway has been sending a rash of spam raging against the Microsoft Sender-ID framework, claiming that Microsoft is itself a spammer. Soloway's activities have gotten him into so much hot water with ISPs that he is currently operating his spam campaign sans domain.

With so many strikes against him, just how does Soloway's spam get delivered? Spamhaus claims that evidence indicates Soloway was hijacking zombie PCs to relay spam "for his (now suspended) 'broadcastadvertise.net' spam service." And still others contend that Soloway continues to use zombie PCs for his current anti-Microsoft rampage.

But is Soloway spamming us out of anger over a lost court battle? Or, as a purported member of the spam king royalty, is Soloway merely desperate to put a stop to Microsoft's proposed Sender-ID framework? Maybe he's urging users to boycott the technology because, quite simply, he's afraid it might work. Because if it does, spammers will have fewer places to hide.

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