Editing Spamming (section)

==In crime==
Spam can be used to spread [[computer virus]]es, [[trojan horse (computing)|trojan horses]], or other malicious software. The objective may be [[identity theft]], or worse (e.g., [[advance fee fraud]]). Some spam attempts to capitalize on human greed, while some attempts to take advantage of the victims' inexperience with computer technology to trick them (e.g., [[phishing]]).

One of the world's most prolific spammers, [[Robert Alan Soloway]], was arrested by US authorities on May 31, 2007.<ref name="Lombardi">{{cite web|last=Lombardi |first=Candace |url=http://www.news.com/Alleged-Seattle-Spammer-arrested/2100-7348_3-6187754.html |title=Alleged 'Seattle Spammer' arrested - CNET |publisher=News.com |access-date=2013-09-03}}</ref> Described as one of the top ten spammers in the world, Soloway was charged with 35 criminal counts, including mail fraud, wire fraud, [[e-mail fraud]], aggravated identity theft, and money laundering.<ref name="Lombardi" /> Prosecutors allege that Soloway used millions of [[zombie computer|"zombie" computers]] to distribute spam during 2003.<ref>Thomas Claburn.{{cite news|url=http://www.informationweek.com/spam-king-robert-alan-soloway-pleads-guilty/d/d-id/1065753?|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209085656/http://www.informationweek.com/spam-king-robert-alan-soloway-pleads-guilty/d/d-id/1065753|title='Spam King' Robert Alan Soloway Pleads Guilty|url-status=dead|date=Mar 17, 2008|archive-date=2015-02-09|work=[[InformationWeek]]}}</ref> This is the first case in which US prosecutors used identity theft laws to prosecute a spammer for taking over someone else's Internet domain name.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.spamfighter.com/News-8513-Spam-Kingpin-Robert-Soloway-Arrested.htm | title=Spam Kingpin Robert Soloway Arrested | date=6 November 2007 | access-date=17 December 2018 | author=SPAMfighter News | archive-date=17 December 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181217062741/https://www.spamfighter.com/News-8513-Spam-Kingpin-Robert-Soloway-Arrested.htm | url-status=live }}</ref>

In an attempt to assess potential legal and technical strategies for stopping illegal spam, a study cataloged three months of online spam data and researched website naming and hosting infrastructures. The study concluded that: 1) half of all spam programs have their domains and servers distributed over just eight percent or fewer of the total available hosting registrars and autonomous systems, with 80 percent of spam programs overall being distributed over just 20 percent of all registrars and autonomous systems; 2) of the 76 purchases for which the researchers received transaction information, there were only 13 distinct banks acting as credit card acquirers and only three banks provided the payment servicing for 95 percent of the spam-advertised goods in the study; and, 3) a "financial blacklist" of banking entities that do business with spammers would dramatically reduce monetization of unwanted e-mails. Moreover, this blacklist could be updated far more rapidly than spammers could acquire new banking resources, an asymmetry favoring anti-spam efforts.<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~savage/papers/Oakland11.pdf|author=Levchenko, Kirill|title=2011 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy |display-authors=etal|date=2011|pages=431–446|doi=10.1109/SP.2011.24|isbn=978-0-7695-4402-1|citeseerx=10.1.1.706.1497|s2cid=16146219|chapter=Click Trajectories: End-to-End Analysis of the Spam Value Chain|access-date=2015-10-29|archive-date=2016-01-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160120212749/http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~savage/papers/Oakland11.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>