Mega-Spammer Taken Down: 30 Years in Prison

News like this just warms my heart: Massive spammer Christopher "Rizler" Smith is off to prison for 30 years, though he was convicted primarily on a variety of drug charges. He's a really great guy: During his trial, Smith fled the country and issued a death threat against the children of one of the witnesses for the prosecution. He will be missed.

As a spammer, Smith reportedly sent over a billion emails through AOL. And lest you think that spam "doesn't work," note that his Viagra-like missives earned him $18 million in his last year online.

Alas, while such takedowns make headlines, they rarely do much to stem the tide of spam, as the 86 messages sitting in my junk mail folder since last night can attest to. An estimated 90 billion spam messages are sent every day, as of February 2007, comprising up to 85 percent of all email traffic. And yet the bulk of those spams come from under 200 major spam operations around the world, together responsible for 80 percent of the world's spam. Get to know them by clicking the previous link!

One down, 199 to go?

LINK: Spammer gets 30 years in the slammer