Interesting article on a spammer who agrees that “he’s going to hell”. But the substance is worth reading:
“Ed,” a retired spammer, built a considerable fortune sending e-mails that promoted pills, porn and casinos. At the peak of his power, Ed says he pulled in $10,000 to $15,000 a week, storing the money in $20 bills in stacks of boxes.
It was a life of greed and excess, one that preyed especially on vulnerable people hoping to score drugs or win money gambling on the Internet. From when he was expelled from high school at 17 until he quit his spam career at 22, Ed — who does not reveal his full name but sometimes goes by SpammerX — was part of an electronic underworld profiting from the Internet via spam.
“Yes, I know I’m going to hell,” said Ed, who spoke in London on Wednesday at an event hosted by IronPort Systems, a security vendor now owned by Cisco Systems. “I’m actually a really nice guy. Trust me.”
Link here (via popsci via ferg)
Alex Eckelberry