Sanford Wallace - Spam King Extraordinaire - is at it again...

Sanford Wallace, also known as "The Spam King" or "Spamford" has been sending unsuspecting users spam email since the mid-1990's. In 1995 he and a partner formed CyberPromotions, also known as CyberPromo. He also did business under multiple different assumed names to help shield himself from the ramifications of his activities.

Wallace championed many now-illegal behaviors to boost his email campaigns' success. His favored techniques included relaying unwanted email off other company's SMTP servers and using incorrect return addresses.

Spamford probably did more than any other individual to popularize the use of DNS blacklists to block spam on incoming SMTP servers. The blacklists contained both known sources of spam, and lists of unsecured servers that could potentially be used to relay spam.

While Wallace claimed he was abandoning spam in the late 90's - he's continued to engage in questionable if not illegal online business practices. According to a Wikipedia article on Spamford, one highlight includes an operation where users systems were infected with spyware, and then charged for it to be removed. This practice is perhaps the only thing less ethical than advertising antispam software by spamming people that I can imagine.

Now Spamford is once again stealing other peoples network resources to promote his businesses.

MySpace.com is suing Spamford for setting up over ten thousand fake profiles in order to promote a series of websites offering online freebies. (With Spamford's record, one has to be skeptical of anything he's trying to give away...)

Spamford is being sued under both provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act and state-level anti-phishing laws in California.

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