Russian spammer murdered
p2pnet.net News:- Russia`s Vardan Kushnir and his American Language Center are famous online. But not because of linguistic accomplishments.
Rather, Kushnir was notorious for spamming, each and every citizen of Russia who appeared to have an e-mail. And yesterday, he was found dead in his Moscow apartment, says Mosnews.
Kushnir, 35, also ran the New York English Centre and Centre for Spoken English, all known to have aggressive Internet advertising policies in which millions of e-mails were sent every day, says the story, going on:
In the past angry Internet users have targeted the American English centre by publishing the Center`s telephone numbers anywhere on the Web to provoke telephone calls. The Center`s telephone was advertised as a contact number for cheap sex services, or bargain real estate sales.”
The picture, upper right, is from a cartoon.ru Kill the American English Centre contest.
“The company managed to successfully defeat anti-spam filtering for a long time by applying the latest tricks (garbled words to defeat filtering, text in image to defeat smart filtering, deformed images to defeat OCR),” says Wikepedia.
“There is probably no spamming technique that wasn’t used, including spamming in media other than e-mail, such as forums, blogs, e-commerce sites, ICQ, etc.”
Spamming isn`t illegal in Russia, although lawmakers are currently considering measures similar to those which exist in some parts of the west.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
Mosnews – Russia`s Biggest Spammer Brutally Murdered in Apartment, July 25, 2005
July 25th, 2005 at 5:32 pm
’tis a tragedy.
July 25th, 2005 at 5:33 pm
If you added up all the time it takes people and buissnesses to delet all the spam coming from this asshole. Then subtracted that time from his life he should have been killed a lonng time ago, I dont believe in crime but am glad to see one less spamer now if we could only do something about those pesky lawyers lol
July 25th, 2005 at 6:10 pm
This is one technique that is sure to prevent a spammer from ever annoying others again. Maybe if a few more of these a$$#oles were nailed like this guy, email would be usable again. I personally would like to see some website that published the addresses of major spammers, the picture of their homes, their personall pictures, and any identifying information such as birthdate, social “security” number, driver’s licence number, and even their licence plate number.
It would not bother me to see about news articles about 80 spammers murdered in one week. One of the main problems with spammers is that they are protected by the CANSPAM (You Can Spam) law. This guy got what civilization needed, and I’m grateful to the person who did it.
July 25th, 2005 at 6:23 pm
‘Tis a tragedy some folks have not-yet Seen The Light, so far as Spammers are concerned. It is refreshing to see *some* people have the testicular-fortitude to do what *should* have been done a *very* long time ago. Likewise, it is sad to see some “people” (and I use this term loosely) who have not-yet “gotten ‘the message’”.
July 25th, 2005 at 6:33 pm
Cooool wish more of the bastards would be killed
July 25th, 2005 at 6:33 pm
Spam is annoying true enough, but to murder someone for it is simply immoral. Stupid people annoy me and constantly cause me mental anguish and consume my precious time on a daily basis. Should I seek them out and kill them? Of course not.
July 25th, 2005 at 7:26 pm
I guess I hate spam as much as anyone. Spammers have gotten to where they don’t know what english is in trying to get around all the various ways that programs are trying to identify spam and end it. Just think of all the “woe is me, my business is crumbling” when spam is successfully killed. Sort of sounds like another business I know. Using the bad english is a certain way to tell the internet user that it isn’t any sort of message they want to read. So I guess in its self that is also an effective method to get around the time wasted in reading it.
Still while the pest industry is an industry that everyone loves to hate, I don’t think he should have been the victim of a vigilanty justice. There are other ways, like taking all his money (legally of course).
This sort of goes back to the video gaming and if it builds agressive behavior. It is the sort of fodder that holier than thou folks use to try and valid that “we should do something” idea. Bet you someone is looking right now with that idea in mind. Of course, I don’t believe that is a valid idea, it has never proved out in the past, I doubt it will this time. Still with the percentages as high as it is that almost all kids have played video games, many adults have grown up with gaming as part of their growing up. In that sense the percentages are with whoever is checking it out.
It is good to see the spam stop, it isn’t so good that the yoyo lost his life after a lifetime of pestering others.
July 25th, 2005 at 8:48 pm
Yeah and when someone gets in trouble for sharing files you cry out, “whats next? The death penalty?” When a spammer is murdered for whatever reason, you say, “Good!”
Thats fucked up. Nothing more, Nothing Less. Just a glaring contridiction and fully disregard for human life.
July 25th, 2005 at 9:10 pm
Spammers have literally caused me to be put out of business. I have tried complaining to their ISP’s only to be DDOSsed, threatened and even having my email address being forged as the return address for spams advertising kiddy porn.
I am glad that people are finally writing software to attack spammers’ websites. It is about time. The pro spammer law call CANSPAM was written in part by the Direct Marketing Association. People are getting tired of being trampled by unethical governments and businessess. It seems that the only thing that spammers understand is violence. If all 200 Spammers who are on the ROKSO’s list were murdered, I would be able to use a dialup message to be able to download my email.
I spent thousands of dollars to build up my business and part of my advertisement campaign included an email address so that people could contact me over the Internet. What happened next was a deluge of over 1500 spams a day. As a result of filtering, I ended up losing some very important clients. Spammers have cost me quite a bit of money. I can see how many would be quite happy to see this type of thief stopped. Spam was one of the reasons why I had to close shop. Spam is one reason why many free services have been discontinued. I can see where peoples’ frustration would lead them to take drastic actions.
If someone was constantly breaking into your home every day and stealing from you and the police would do nothing to help you, then you might consider going after that burglar once you were able to trace him to his lair. I know that I would.
July 25th, 2005 at 9:16 pm
I agree with you that the death penalty is inapropriate punishment for a spammer. I would LOVE for the the government to step in and prosecute them or allow us to attack their websites to shut them down.
But since governments side with the spammers and allow the spammers to continue to trespass on our networks and steal bandwidth from us, then what other alternative do we have. I didn’t say good because the spammer is dead, I said good because he will no longer spam. It would be better to have a more civilized way of dealing with spammers, but since the government and courts protect spammers, unfortunately it has come down to this.
July 25th, 2005 at 9:55 pm
Hopefully whoever killed the bastard will target the spammer’s family and pets. The death of this piece of subhuman filth made my year. DIE SPAMMER DIE…
Oh, hopefully he was tortured for several hours first…
July 26th, 2005 at 2:18 am
Possibilities as to why this happened.
1. Spammed a member of a russian crime gang one time too many.
2. Entrepeneurial (or however you spell that) new player looking to “take competition to a whole new level”.
3. Ordinary russian citizen “registering their dissatisfaction with the opt-out procedures” directly with the boss.
I can see it happening again, in any country. Let’s face it, our governments are constantly explaining that they HAVE to be able to spy on our every move online because “criminals use the net.” Well if they do, i’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate being spammed any more than the next guy. The next guy however probly doesn’t have easy access to hitmen tho.
Something for spammers and other “marketing” organisations to keep in mind. Would be kind of embarassing to have your CEO knocked off in the middle of an AGM because Marketing decided a spam campaign was the “most cost-effective solution for our marketing needs”. Wouldn’t it?
July 26th, 2005 at 5:16 am
WE all know that their are a few spammers who need this to happen to them as well !!!!! Great way to rid the net of this crap!!!!!!
July 26th, 2005 at 5:53 am
July 26th, 2005 at 6:21 am
This russian spammer was murdered because he was an anoyance, you could even call him a royal pain in the ass, what he did was steal our bandwith so somebody decided this was a sufficent reason to steal his life. This spammer should of ben fined or arested but he never deprived anyone of the abillty to lead a fruitfull life. It bothers me that a spammer feels its ok anoy and harrass perfect strangers so that they might make a few bucks. But it bothers me more , no scares me that someone killed him over it. Any one who thinks this russian deserved being murdered is very very sick in the head.
July 26th, 2005 at 6:21 am
This russian spammer was murdered because he was an anoyance, you could even call him a royal pain in the ass, what he did was steal our bandwith so somebody decided this was a sufficent reason to steal his life. This spammer should of ben fined or arested but he never deprived anyone of the abillty to lead a fruitfull life. It bothers me that a spammer feels its ok anoy and harrass perfect strangers so that they might make a few bucks. But it bothers me more , no scares me that someone killed him over it. Any one who thinks this russian deserved being murdered is very very sick in the head.
July 26th, 2005 at 2:22 pm
Entrepeneurial (or however you spell that) new player looking to “take competition to a whole new level”.
3. Ordinary russian citizen “registering their dissatisfaction with the opt-out procedures” directly with the boss.
I can definately see these possabilities.
July 26th, 2005 at 2:23 pm
Entrepeneurial (or however you spell that) new player looking to “take competition to a whole new level”.
3. Ordinary russian citizen “registering their dissatisfaction with the opt-out procedures” directly with the boss.
I can definately see these possabilities.
July 26th, 2005 at 4:04 pm
This guy is now a spammer that I like.
July 26th, 2005 at 6:31 pm
its not as much sick in the head as just wanting to look cool on the internet…i think most of the people here wouldn’t have the balls to kill another human being over annoying emails. they’re just little kids wanting to sound like they have a big pair without realizing what they’re really saying. This guy has a mother and father, probably brothers and sisters. who knows what other kind of family. and he’s dead now, as in not existing on this plain of existance anymore. in a hole in the ground forever. off to heaven or wherever you each think you go when you die. gone forever because someone thought it was a good idea to kill him over electronic 1’s and 0’s. if you honestly think this is some great idea, then someone should shoot your parents or someone close to you in the head with a high powered rifle so you know how this guys family feels right about now. just use your heads and realize there’s more to life than your fucking email problems.
July 26th, 2005 at 6:42 pm
Wow, that guy must have been a real jerk to get deep sixed like that. Whats’ the world coming to?
July 26th, 2005 at 7:39 pm
Created: 26.07.2005 15:17 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:17 MSK, 7 hours 20 minutes ago
MosNews
The murder of Russiaâs biggest spammer Vardan Kushnir was not connected with his Internet activity, but with a straightforward robbery, Moscow investigators reported.
Kushnir, 35, was found dead in his Moscow apartment on Sunday. He died after suffering repeated blows to the head. Investigators, quoted by the Kommersant newspaper, said this was not a contract murder or revenge for spamming. âThings are simpler. He became a victim of clonidine. For now, this is the only theory.â
At the scene, investigators discovered soporific, a sleep inducer, in a glass and a womanâs dressing gown and blouse. Apparently, the spammer had met three girls in a club called the Hungry Duck, and invited them to his apartment. The girls then poured soporific into his wine, but it is suppected that the dose was insufficient, and that Kushnir woke up when the girlsâ accomplices arrived to rob his house. During the ensuing scuffle, he was killed. The robbers took his credit cards, laptop, digital video camera, gold and money. On Monday, police detained one of the suspected girls.
Kushnir headed the English learning centers, which included the Center for American English, the New York English Center and the Center for Spoken English, all known to have extremely aggressive Internet advertising policies which featured sending millions of e-mails every day.
In the past angry Internet users had retaliated against the American English centre by publishing the Centerâs telephone numbers extensively throughout the Web to provoke telephone calls. The Centerâs telephone was advertised as a contact number for cheap sex services, or bargain real estate sales. Another tactic involved hundreds of people making phone calls to the American English Center and sending it numerous e-mails. Nevertheless, Vardan Kushnir remained confident of his right to spam, saying it was what e-mails were for.
Center for Spoken English officials declined to comment on the news of Kushnirâs murder.
Under Russian law, spamming is not considered illegal, although lawmakers are working on projects that could protect Russian Internet users in ways similar to the U.S. and Europe.