Russian Spammer Found Murdered
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Written By Reprise Media | July 26, 2005 | Share This
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Murders are not uncommon in Moscow. Anywhere between 10 and 20 people meet a violent end in Russia’s capital each day. A significant number of those deaths go unsolved.
What’s unusual about Vardan Kushnir’s untimely death is its treatment in the Russian press. Headlines ranging from “He Had it Coming” to “An Ultimate Solution to the Problem” demonstrate a level of glee usually reserved for condemned murderers and ousted despots.
Some might say Kushnir’s crimes are worse. He’s a spammer.
Going beyond the “News of the Weird” marginalized coverage that this story has gotten in the mainstream US press, this article in The Moscow News gives the back-story on Kushnir, explaining how lax spam laws and even more lax enforcement have led to a junk mail epidemic of epic proportions in Russia. The Internet community had resorted to grassroots measures in order to deal with Kushnir, the most prolific spammer in all of Russia. Tactics such as posting Kushnir’s personal data on the web and setting up an automated call stream to Kushnir’s company’s answering machines all proved futile. It’s little wonder why many Russians were pleased when his body was found bludgeoned to death in his downtown Moscow apartment.
WebProNews has more, including details on a theory that the spammer fell prey to three female attackers after being slipped some sort of Roofie-like substance at a club.
Wikipedia has the low-down on Kushnir’s company as well as a link to its innocuous-looking site that was the source of frustration for millions of spam recipients.
Topics: Legal Issues |