Scott Richter Update 2005

Somehow my post from May 12th, 2004 titled “Scott Richter is a Lying Scumbag” has made it to the #2 result (as of this writing) when Googling the name Scott Richter, even outranking actual Legitimate News Media Outlets. And today I’ve noticed a sudden surge in clicks from search engines pointing to that article (it is a catchy title) so I guess Scotty is in the news. Back to Google and a quick news query shows what all the buzz is about.

It was announced today that Richter and his high-volume E-mail deploying operation, OptInRealBig, have settled a lawsuit brought against them by Microsoft for the sum of $7million. While Richter continues to deny any wrongdoing, we all know that a settlement is essentially an admission of guilt. Were Richter’s data and equipment subpoenaed maybe they would have shown evidence of unsolicited and fraudulent spamming, potentially opening the doors for even more lawsuits and criminal charges. Better to just take the hit and hope the Microsoft legal squad backs off. It’s interesting to note that the settlement is contingent on Richter also dropping his bankruptcy proceedings, which could have allowed him to skip out on the bill.

This settlement comes on the heels of Richter being de-listed from ROKSO a few weeks back, having sworn some months before that he had gone legit and now deploys his high-volume E-mail only to confirmed opt-in recipients. After passing the requisite period with no new reports, Spamhaus guru Steve Linford announced the event to NANAE to a chorus of wary cheers and well-founded suspicions.

I’m not going to congratulate Scott Richter for slightly altering his shady and offensive business model in the face of fines, jailtime, and seething hatred from every computer owner on the globe. The man has done significant damage to the Internet and deserves to suffer a million indignities with a red-hot Garden Weasel. But on the whole it seems “Snotty Scotty” has indeed stopped spamming. See kids, death threats do work.