A Reformed Spammer

We recently wrote about a spam vigilante who identified the spammer who was making his life miserable. Now we’ve discovered a “reformed” spammer who’s quit the computer game and owns a nightclub in New Hampshire. As head of the junk e-mail company Cyber Promotions, he was “cyberspace’s most hated person in the 1990s.”

Brian McWilliams writes in wired.com that Sanford Wallace, known as “Spamford,” is now known as “DJ MasterWeb” at Plum Crazy in Rochester, NH. He says, “Now, instead of making money near a bunch of computers, I make money near a bunch of beautiful women.”

“I think the world of Sanford,” says Pete Wellborn, an Atlanta attorney who won a $2 million judgment against him on behalf of EarthLink in 1998. “He really is a man of his word, unlike the spammers we see now who are either ignorant or common criminals.”

Wallace once sent 25 million junk e-mails per day on behalf of clients ranging from porn sites to anti spam software companies. Cyber Promotions was behind 80% of the spam going to computers. He became the target of over a dozen lawsuits from America Online, CompuServe, Bigfoot and Concentric Network. Wallace settled all the lawsuits by getting out of the spam business, so he didn?t pay anyone a penny.

He says, “They won, and I’m the first to admit it. But it has turned into a bigger problem, despite their efforts. So the battle isn’t over yet. But they don’t have to battle me, so they have a much easier battle.”

Wallace’s former spamming partner Walt Rimes no longer sends spam either?he now concentrates on pop up ads.

Before you tackle that spam, start each day with the beauty of our new 2004 crop circle calendar.

NOTE: This news story, previously published on our old site, will have any links removed.