What Happens To Spammers

ONE of Russia's most infamous spammers has been found beaten to death in his apartment, prompting thinly veiled jubilation among many of the country’s estimated 14 million internet users.

Vardan Kushnir, 35, had bombarded almost every e-mail user in the country for years with unsolicited adverts for the American Language Centre that he ran. Police, who found his body on Monday, said that he had been hit several times on the head with a heavy object and his apartment in central Moscow had been ransacked. They declined to comment on a motive for the murder.

"This was not a contract killing or revenge for spam," a detective said.

But Russian media could not resist speculating that Mr Kushnir had been killed by an irate recipient of his e-mail advertisements. "An Ultimate Solution to the Spam Problem," one headline read. "The Spammer Had it Coming," read another. "Ignoble Death Becomes Russia's Top Spammer," read a third.

[ TIMES Online, Jul 27 2005 ]