Has Scott Richter Really Gone Legit?

from the so-they-say... dept

Scott Richter was, for a time, considered one of the top spam kings out there. In the book, Spam Kings, Richter is portrayed as someone who continually goes back and forth over whether to be legit or whether be a normal spammer -- though, in practice, it certainly looked like the temptation to spam was too strong. Richter has been involved in a number of lawsuits, including one in New York where he received a slap on the wrist and told to stop spamming. Richter also recently filed for bankruptcy, but it wasn't because he was broke -- but because he wanted to protect himself from another lawsuit (this one from Microsoft). In fact, the details showed that the supposedly "bankrupt" Richter was doing quite well. With his reputation, many will certainly be surprised to hear that he may have actually gone legit after all of this. Brian McWilliams reports that Richter has been removed from the infamous "ROKSO" list (Registry of Known Spam Operations), often considered the most complete and detailed list of spammers. Anti-spammers have been watching him closely, and apparently have been unable to find any spam associated with Richter in many months, leading to his removal from the list. If it's true, it would be impressive -- so here's hoping that he's really become a reformed spammer.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    w.h., 20 Jul 2005 @ 4:41am

    Personally....

    ....I'd prefer it as getting out while the getting was good and trying to live off of his ill-gained profits.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    b0b, 20 Jul 2005 @ 10:13am

    He's farming it out.

    He simply has other companies doing the dirty work now. Pretty simple.

    Jumpstart Technologies, LLC, based in San Francisco is one of them. I remember seeing a list of top 10 spammers and a note from an exec asking "Why aren't we doing business with these people?" - also, Scotty Richter was a business partner.

    Spam makes a LOT of money, sadly..

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Not Scott, 26 May 2006 @ 12:19pm

    He's still dirty as ever

    We have heard from people who fell for one of his scams and are looking to redeem their price. Unfortunately, his random choice of company names ended up screwing us. He is as big a spammer as ever, but with Daddy on board, they're covering as much of their tracks as they can.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    David, 4 Dec 2007 @ 6:30pm

    Scott is still spamming the world

    Everybody in the business knows Scott Richter is still America's biggest spammer and his various companies sends out millions of illegal emails a day (once 100 million a day). He covers his tracks by using affiliated companies.

    Don't know why authorities won't clamp down on him. Tap his phone for 15 minutes and they'll hear all!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    self help, 19 Jun 2008 @ 2:05am

    very interesting.
    i've read about this in a few articles.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Krishna, 29 Dec 2009 @ 10:44am

    Scoot Richter has started another Fraudulent Business

    Now, he is CEO of Media Breakaway. The modus operandi for Media Breakaway is:
    1. Make unauthorized charges on thousands of cellphones gathered from various websites. The charges appear on cellphone bills, and people hardly notice them.
    2. If anybody notices and complains, give them back their money.
    3. Keep the money of those who did not complain.

    How do I know this? I am one of those who complained and got my $9.99 back. No, I did not sign up for their stupid & non existent "Quiz Club" service via sms. I have made a complaint to the FTC about this, but they seem slow and inefficient. Hope they jail Scott Richter for ever - he should not be free to do this. He is total scum.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.