Spam king exposed
2003-08-15 07:22
Auckland - A New Zealander was on Friday revealed as one of the major global senders of internet spam offering penis enlargement.
The New Zealand Herald said Christchurch man Shane Atkinsons business was sending 100 million e-mail messages a day.
To avoid being shut down, Atkinson hosts a variety of domains with names such as sizepills.biz, rxmedicalgroup.com, penis-tips.com and sapublishings.com, on spam-friendly network providers in Poland and Pakistan who ignore complaints.
"There are spam hosts in America, but they tend to close down quickly due to complaints," Atkinson told the newspaper.
While he could host on domestic systems, New Zealand spam hosting was too slow.
Many of his e-mails were along the lines of "How to boost your penis size and self-esteem" and "Satisfy your lover with an increased penis size".
Atkinson said he had been spamming for a year and had no qualms about it. He would not give details on how profitable his business was, but said it allowed him to keep a nice car and own a house.
On a good day, Atkinson and his associates sent "up to 100 million" messages.
He paid associates to do the actual spamming and said a 15-year-old working from the United States earned US$500 a day.
It did not bother him that the messages annoyed people, or that some messages were received by minors.
In his view, spam was part and parcel of being on the internet.
"If you don't want to receive spam, don't connect to the internet, or don't have an e-mail address."