'Spamford' Spins Disks at Black Hat

LAS VEGAS, Aug. 2 -- One of the most notorious and successful spammers of all time -- Sanford Wallace (a.k.a. "Spamford") -- is set to DJ at the OPM club here at Caesar's Palace Hotel where Black Hat 2006 is underway.

In May, a federal judge ordered Wallace and his company, Smartbot.net, to pay back more than $4 million that the Federal Trade Commission charged that Wallace had scammed from Internet users by using security flaws to install his bogus anti-spyware programs on thousands of computers.

The FTC and Wallace are still working with the court to figure out how Wallace might begin to pay his debt, but for now Wallace claims the entire legal battle ruined him. In a February e-mail to the FTC, Sanford wrote:

"Financially, I am basically ruined, mostly due to my stupidity. I think you can agree with me after investigating my bank accounts, that I have not played any games with oversees [sic] deposits or any of that type of stuff....I am basically a moron with the way I have handled myself. And I have also suffered from a serious gambling problem....I am trying to do things right. It has been over a year and a half and I have held an honest job and am just trying to survive in the legitimate world. I have lost everything and am essentially at rock bottom at this point.

Wallace now goes by the name "DJmasterweb," and his new persona is evident at this Myspace profile (note that the page loads music with profanity, so if you visit it at work you might want to turn down the volume).

Incidentally, Eileen Harrington, the FTC's director of consumer protection, will be speaking at Black Hat today on an Anti-Spyware Coalition panel discussion about corporate spyware threats.