Former Spam King Scott Richter doing well

 
Richter's e-mail marketing company, OptinRealBig.com (Optin), has reported considerable gains in just the first two months of 2006. The company, which has doubled its revenue in each of the past three years, now expects to far exceed its past growth patterns in the months to come.

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OptinRealBig.com takes into account its clients budget, ideal consumer, and short- and long-term goals to create opt-in and co-registered marketing campaigns. It draws from an online user database of over 8 million, receives 20 million page views per month on its clients' websites, and delivers an average of 350,000 website orders per month.

Scott Richter, CEO of OptinRealBig.com stated: "For the past three years the company has doubled its revenue each year. However, if the first two months of 2006 are any indicator for the remainder of 2006, we will far surpass what has become our customary twofold growth trend. This is an unbelievable accomplishment and I am very proud of our team in achieving these results. As I have been traveling around the country and talking to our Advertisers and Affiliates, the consistent message I heard from them is 'keep up the good work' and I have every intention of making that happen."

"The improvement in our deliverability of advertisements, the expansion of our Affiliate Network (CPA Empire), the implementation of our E3 (Exceeding Expectations Everyday) employee incentive program, the success of our Thank You Affiliates(sm) Rewards Program, the addition of key employees to our team, and the continuing dedication of our team, have all contributed to the record breaking numbers for 2006," said Steve Richter, President of Optin.

George Avery, Director of CPAEmpire, stated that "our exclusive campaigns such as 'Ringaza,' 'PC BugDoctor,' ; PetCareRx,' and 'White Over Nite,' provide our Affiliates with high-converting products and services that are a win-win return on investment for the Affiliate and the Advertisers."

OptinRealBig.com changed its e-mailing practices because Microsoft and the New York Attorney General sued Scott Richter in December 2003.

Scott Richter (source: NYT/2004)

Self-proclaimed "Spam King" Scott Richter was a long-time resident of the ROKSO top 200 spammers. One of the most famous emails his company sent was the offer of Iraqi "most wanted" playing cards in 2003; Richter claims to have sold 40,000 decks before they were even printed.

The parallel New York and Microsoft suits alleged that Richter and accomplices in Washington state, Texas and New York were responsible for seven illegal spam campaigns, using techniques such as forged sender names, false subject lines, bogus server names and hidden transmission paths. They also charged that Richter and associates sent spam through 514 hijacked computers in 35 countries and six continents. Those zombie computers allegedly included computers at a New York Internet service provider, a South Korean hospital and even the Kuwaiti Ministry of Finance.

The spam network allegedly sent more than 250 million junk e-mails daily.

At the time of the filing, both the Attorney General and Microsoft were explicit in stating that their intention was to drive the defendants in the suits into bankruptcy and make it impossible for them to spam again. In Spitzer's words, the aim of the suits was to "change the economics of spam" and "drive them out of business."

OptInRealBig.com reached a settlement with AG Eliot Spitzer.

Richter and OptInRealBig.com admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement, but promised to provide the Attorney General's office with customer information and all advertisements it sent, and to use proper identifying information in registering domain names. Richter maintained after the settlement that his company's mailings had been completely compliant with CAN-SPAM regulations.

In March 2005, OptInRealBig.com filed for bankruptcy protection. It claimed to have assets of less than US$10 million and debts of more than $50 million, due to several legal actions concerning spamming. Microsoft's refusal to settle a $20 million claim based on Washington state spam law is what forced Optinrealbig to file for bankruptcy. Steven Richter, who is Scott Richter's father and OptInRealBig.com's lawyer, commented "OptIn is profitable but for these lawsuits."

On August 9th, 2005, Microsoft lawyer Brad Smith published an open letter outlining the results of Microsoft's legal action against Richter. According to Microsoft, Richter agreed to pay $7 million in damages to Microsoft. The company from Redmond claims to give the biggest part of the money to charitable causes.

Richter made offline news in April 2004 when he announced that he would begin marketing a line of SpamKing clothing—hats, shirts, pants and underwear—carrying slogans such as "Just Opt Out." According to Richter, the first batch of his retail clothing line "sold out in stores within three days."

He was stalled by a trademark lawsuit by Hormel Foods, which owns the trademark to edible SPAM.

RELATED
Microsoft and Spam King Scott Richter announce settlement
Alleged world's third-largest spammer files for bankruptcy

 
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