US prosecutors captured a nefarious Internet marketer responsible so much junk email they called him 'spam king,' an AFP report said.
The AFP report said Robert Soloway, 27, was arrested in Seattle , Washington, a week after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of identity theft, money laundering, and mail, wire, and email fraud.
'Spam is a scourge of the Internet, and Robert Soloway is one of its most prolific practitioners,' US Attorney for the Western District of Washington Jeffrey Sullivan was quoted by the AFP report as saying.
The AFP report quoted prosecutor as saying that between November of 2003 and May of 2007 Soloway 'spammed' tens of millions of email messages to promote web sites at which his company, Newport Internet Marketing, sold products and services.
Soloway routinely moved his web site to different Internet addresses to dodge detection and began registering them through Chinese Internet service providers in 2006 in an apparent ploy to mask his involvement, the AFP report said.
Spam messages sent by Soloway used misleading 'header' information to dupe people into opening them, according to Sullivan, the report said.
If convicted as charged, Soloway will face a maximum sentence of more than 65 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, the report further said.