Scott Richter
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Scott Richter has been accused by some as being a U.S.-based email spammer, but this accusation has been disputed.
Richter was listed in the ROKSO top 200 spammers, but his inclusion in the list has recently been deleted. His company, Optinrealbig.com, sends some 100 million emails a day. One of the most famous emails was the offer of Iraqi "most wanted" playing cards in 2003; Richter claims to have sold 40,000 decks before they were even printed.
Scott Richter gives frequent interviews and is quite outspoken about his business. He claims it complies fully with all laws, meaning in part that its emails include valid subjects and origin addresses, and it honors all opt out requests. Richter has been sued by Microsoft and the New York Attorney General; he settled with the New York Attorney General for $50,000 and admitted no wrongdoing.
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." [1]
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. The agreement is pending the court's approval.
Richter also ran a clothing line called "Spam King" until it was stalled by a trademark lawsuit by Hormel Foods, which owns the trademark to edible SPAM.
He was on an episode of The Daily Show being interviewed by Rob Corddry and gave out his personal email address as scottrichter422@yahoo.com.
