Richard Colbert
Encyclopedia
Richard Colbert was a prolific spammer based in Miami
, Florida
, in an area known as "Spam Beach".
He would obtain clients' email addresses by searching AOL
member profiles for any including phrases such as "business opportunity" or "multilevel marketing", believing them to be small-time salesmen like himself. He would then spam these individuals with offers for his service to spam on their behalf, and reply personally to anyone who responded. Having secured clients, he would send their advertisements to general recipients on lists he had purchased, charging up to US$900 for a million addresses.
He was interviewed by the New York Times in 2003, in which he insisted he always included legitimate "from" addresses in his messages, and honoured unsubscribe requests, believing the alternative to be detrimental to the business of online marketing. However, he also used American Express's
anonymous $25 temporary credit cards to set up short-lived email accounts with his local operator, BellSouth
, from which he could spam freely and without risk of being traced until each address was shut down.
However, despite making a profit from spamming (apparently clearing $130,000 in three months), he continued to live in a mobile home
and obtain his clothes and equipment from eBay
.
He retired from spamming in 2003, and was subsequently removed from ROKSO, the Spamhaus Project's
list of prolific spammers.
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, in an area known as "Spam Beach".
He would obtain clients' email addresses by searching AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
member profiles for any including phrases such as "business opportunity" or "multilevel marketing", believing them to be small-time salesmen like himself. He would then spam these individuals with offers for his service to spam on their behalf, and reply personally to anyone who responded. Having secured clients, he would send their advertisements to general recipients on lists he had purchased, charging up to US$900 for a million addresses.
He was interviewed by the New York Times in 2003, in which he insisted he always included legitimate "from" addresses in his messages, and honoured unsubscribe requests, believing the alternative to be detrimental to the business of online marketing. However, he also used American Express's
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
anonymous $25 temporary credit cards to set up short-lived email accounts with his local operator, BellSouth
BellSouth
BellSouth Corporation is an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after the U.S...
, from which he could spam freely and without risk of being traced until each address was shut down.
However, despite making a profit from spamming (apparently clearing $130,000 in three months), he continued to live in a mobile home
Mobile home
Mobile homes or static caravans are prefabricated homes built in factories, rather than on site, and then taken to the place where they will be occupied...
and obtain his clothes and equipment from eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
.
He retired from spamming in 2003, and was subsequently removed from ROKSO, the Spamhaus Project's
The Spamhaus Project
The Spamhaus Project is an international organisation to track e-mail spammers and spam-related activity. It is named for the anti-spam jargon term coined by Linford, spamhaus, a pseudo-German expression for an ISP or other firm which spams or willingly provides service to spammers.-Spamhaus...
list of prolific spammers.
External links
- "Confessions of a Spam King" -- the New York Times article