Washington Post, DC: Va. Man Wins Spammer's Porsche

Update: WebExtractor, MailSoft creators flood Charles S. Chase’s Inbox with unwanted mail

Richmond, VA—Charles S. Chase, the winner of an AOL-auctioned 2002 Porsche Boxter S, has been deluged with emails that might allow him to win $$$ while losing weight, enhancing personal size, and helping out rich but endangered Nigerian government officials. Representatives for WebExtractor, MailSoft and Bulk Email Broadcaster claimed no knowledge of the inbound emails while officials at AOL admitted that publicizing Chase’s identity “may not have been the best idea.” Chase is receiving 2000 to 3000 emails per day, a torrent unimpeded by spam software and email filters. “It doesn’t seem to matter that I’ve switched my account three times,” said Chase, “… they seem to be able to find me.. I shouldn’t even be doing this interview.” AOL obtained the Porsche after suing a spam provider and chose to auction the car in order to attract attention to the new AOL 9.0 platform. Investigators suggest that Chase may have been targeted as a result of the auction. “It’s like a spam Mafia,” said US Attorney Robert J. Krask, “We'll track this down but he’s going to have a difficult few months.” Just as the interview ended, a line of mail delivery vehicles pulled into Chase’s driveway in order to deliver approximately 16,000 sales inserts and replicated JCrew catalogs. “This is the horses head,” said Krask, “This is just the beginning.”

- posted by JB @ 12:14 PM