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July 26, 2005 2:32 AM

Russian spammer beaten to death.
posted by mono blanco (35 comments total)

And this weeks Most Unexpected Use of a Harry Potter Analogy Award goes to:

"... (Spam) will persist for years to come, exactly the way Lord Voldemort finds his way back into the picture with every new installment of the Harry Potter saga. But this time, the magic wand has for once dealt a deadly blow to the arch-villain, and there seems to be no option left for the spectators, than to hail the magic."
posted by tighttrousers at 2:50 AM on July 26, 2005

Slashdot had surprisingly lean pickings for this one, here's the two best (paraphrased):

Looks like somebody finally punched the monkey.

In Soviet Russia, spam assassinates you!
posted by Ryvar at 2:51 AM on July 26, 2005

Life goes on, and so do we,
Just how we do it is no mystery.
One by one (one by one), we fill the days,
We find a thousand different ways.
posted by Effigy2000 at 2:58 AM on July 26, 2005

Ya know, it's not really a fitting ending to him.

Believe you me, I can't stand spammers. Thanks to ezboard.com, I get over 400 spams a day to my work email. All for signing up for a board that a cow-orker setup to co-ordinate our Counter-Strike games. However, he didn't deserve to be beaten to death for it. I can only imagine that he was probably involved in some other shady dealings that prompted this.

That being said, I'd rather he be kept alive, eyes taped open, forced to watch commercials and listen to radio ads for the rest of his life. That would be justice...
posted by Swervo at 3:31 AM on July 26, 2005

OK I admit it
posted by cassbrown1 at 3:44 AM on July 26, 2005

Did fucking Borat write that article?
posted by Mayor Curley at 3:51 AM on July 26, 2005

Unfortunately, murder isn't that rare an occurrence in Russia these days, especially among businessmen.
posted by watsondog at 3:52 AM on July 26, 2005

He made his living driving tens of millions of people batshit insane with his crap just so he could make a buck. Ethics according to my intellect says that whenever anybody dies for any reason it's a terrible tragedy.


The rest of me says "Suck it down, asshole."
posted by Ryvar at 3:55 AM on July 26, 2005

I'd guess Mr Spamov was whacked for failing to make his protection payments, or by robbers, and not some internet-age Batman. His system is probably already being reprogramed to send out ads for however V14GR4 is spelled in Cyrillic...in other words, there is still no justice in this world...
posted by senor biggles at 4:06 AM on July 26, 2005

"The authorities have obviously got no clue as to who that someone might have been."
Accuracy in reporting at last.
posted by OmieWise at 4:25 AM on July 26, 2005

Ya know, it's not really a fitting ending to him.

No, but it would have been if they had sliced him up and then grilled him with a little sprinkling of onions in the middle.
posted by biffa at 4:33 AM on July 26, 2005

I do not condone murder or vigilante justice. On the other hand, the world is better off without him.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:41 AM on July 26, 2005

Kind of a sad aticle that makes the Russians looks worse than the spammer IMHO, for all that he was a complete arse and a moron. (I mean I'd guess he was receiving death threats in reply daily, and since the nature of his spam probably made him relatively find-able, he wasn't being too sensible in carrying on). Violent murder and apathy about the same are bad.. and stuff.. but it's no news that many people feel differently, especially if someone is being *hisss* annoying.
posted by Drexen at 4:46 AM on July 26, 2005

.
posted by DrDoberman at 4:52 AM on July 26, 2005

¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`A+++ WOULD KILL AGAIN`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸
posted by NinjaPirate at 5:17 AM on July 26, 2005

MayorCurley for the win.
posted by loquacious at 5:26 AM on July 26, 2005

Dear Esteemed Sir

I am Anatoly Smokerskoff, until recently a Director of the Board of Chairmen of Information Technology in Moscow Russia (fomer SSR). I have recently came into possession of several millions (1000000) dollars worth of email address of lucrative Potential Customers for Your Business. I am in Great Danger due to Recent Developments in my country and am seek trustworthy and reliable Partner in USA to whom I may share the proceeds of this Windfall. Please snd a copy of your Passport and Bank Routing information by return mail so we may begin to TRUST EACH other. Due to the Situation in my country (Russia) this transaction is must remains TOP SECRET. Upon successful completion of a Small Deposit as a token of our mutual trust I will to meet you in Amsterdam (Holland/Netherlands) with CD-Rom of all addresses for Your Lucrative Business Venture on Internet. For your help I will share with you fifty (50) percent (%) of net proceeds from sale of addresses. I have all contacts to complete sale immediately upon receipt of your Confidential Information With God's help and all mutual confidence and respect,

Your partner in confidential lucrative Business.

Anatoly Smokerskoff
posted by realcountrymusic at 5:45 AM on July 26, 2005

The story has updated.

The murder of Russia’s biggest spammer Vardan Kushnir was not connected with his Internet activity, but with a straightforward robbery, Moscow investigators reported.

At the scene, investigators discovered soporific, a sleep inducer, in a glass and a woman’s dressing gown and blouse. Apparently, the spammer had met three girls in a club called the Hungry Duck, and invited them to his apartment. The girls then poured soporific into his wine, but it is suppected that the dose was insufficient, and that Kushnir woke up when the girls’ accomplices arrived to rob his house. During the ensuing scuffle, he was killed. The robbers took his credit cards, laptop, digital video camera, gold and money. On Monday, police detained one of the suspected girls.
posted by Prospero at 5:58 AM on July 26, 2005

I guess celebrating someone's murder is best-of-the-web material, now.
posted by Rothko at 5:59 AM on July 26, 2005

It's very telling that the man is characterized first and foremost as a spammer. Had he valuables in his apartment? Was he involved in some other illegitimate business? Was he sleeping with a woman who had a violent husband? We don't know. We just know that he spammed millions of email accounts, and that he was reviled for that to the point that people actually are inclined to believe it could have been a motive for murder.

I would like every spammer and, for that matter, telemarketer, out there to read this article and get a realizing sense of the sense of outrage people feel. They shouldn't underestimate it.
posted by orange swan at 6:01 AM on July 26, 2005

orange swan, look upwards.
posted by glenwood at 6:53 AM on July 26, 2005

Not only will SpamAssassin block junk email, if we find the source, we'll beat them to death with a blunt object!
posted by mosch at 7:05 AM on July 26, 2005

If I were ever seen in a club called the "Hungry Duck", I'd want to be murdered too.

P.S. Ninja Pirate for the win.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:09 AM on July 26, 2005

I wonder what the chances are of turning "Hungry Duck" into a meme of some sort?
posted by Ynoxas at 7:53 AM on July 26, 2005

Every time you kill a spammer, God masturbates a kitten.

Or something like that.
posted by fungible at 7:55 AM on July 26, 2005

fungible, is that something like the kitty version of the Red Rocket?

I'm not happy he was beaten to death but I'm not all that unhappy about it either. Scary that so many people are killed so violently in Russia these days.

Dude thought he was going to get the four way going and ended up getting his skull beat in. I think there's a lesson in there somewhere, something about greed, I think.
posted by fenriq at 8:19 AM on July 26, 2005

So it wasn't actually the murder of a spammer, but just a boring old burglary turned into murder? See, even the Russians are not that crazy.

I love the journalist's style. That "the authorities obviously have no clue" should be a caption under every major news announcement. Combined with the announcers throwing each other a glance and snickering after reading official statements. And politicians press conferences peppered with recorded sit-com laughter. Ok, I got carried away there...
posted by funambulist at 8:25 AM on July 26, 2005

Slashdot at +5,Funny (so you don't have to go dig it yourself):
Penis Enlargement: 1,2
Soviet Russia
Legality
Spam: 1,2
Nigeria
Opt-out
Bounce
The good-old "a good start"
Nerdy Self-Referencial:O'Reilly,Spam Assassin

And just to confirm the impression about the spammers' popularity in the technical community, as of now this thread has exactly one comment moderated -1,Troll (and even this one is almost sure to be meta-moderated back, since it is quite mild compared to many unmoderated AC comments just above it).
posted by nkyad at 8:32 AM on July 26, 2005

Nevertheless, probably someone loved him and is sad.
posted by scratch at 8:37 AM on July 26, 2005

thats karma for you.
posted by puke & cry at 9:10 AM on July 26, 2005 [1 favorite]

When I was in Moscow, I didn't go to the Hungry Duck, but read about it in the entertainment guide...

Basic concept: at 8:00 women (only) admitted, free... free / very cheap drinks... male strippers... after a couple hours, men are permitted in, at $20 a head or something ridiculous.

Free for all fight - fuck - vomit all over the place ensues. Supposedly it gets very lewd and violent very fast...

posted by Meatbomb at 10:06 AM on July 26, 2005

They took his laptop...a sad footnote and rather ironic that his spamming tool will live on.
posted by runningdogofcapitalism at 10:12 AM on July 26, 2005

Now he's watching Sick Sluts Getting their holes pumped by animals in Heaven.
posted by Cyrano at 10:16 AM on July 26, 2005

Slashdot at +5,Funny (so you don't have to go dig it yourself):

Oh noes! I've been outed!
posted by five fresh fish at 10:28 AM on July 26, 2005

Scary that so many people are killed so violently in Russia these days.

That's what clearly jumped out at me as well:

every day between 10 and 20 people meet a violent death in Russia’s capital

Can anyone confirm that fact? I don't trust this writer, and couldn't find any good resources. Domestic violence? Check. Police violence? Check. Violent crime (domestic violence is still not a crime, I don't think)? ...
posted by mrgrimm at 11:00 AM on July 26, 2005