Vardan Vardanovich Kuschnir

Vardan Vardanovich Kuschnir ( Russian Вардан Варданович Кушнир ; born November 22, 1969 or 1970 in the Armenian SSR ; † July 24, 2005 in Moscow ) was a well-known spammer of Armenian-Jewish descent who ran the American Language Center (ALC) in Russia as well Operated Sophim Inc. in Florida and sent unsolicited e-mail advertisements (or “spammed” them) to much of the Russian-speaking Internet community. Kuschnir was killed by blows to the head in 2005.

Career

According to estimates, between 2001 and 2005, Kuschnir sent his e-mail advertising regularly and unsolicited to up to 25 million e-mail users per mail. Although only Muscovites were among his “target group”, his emails also reached users in Ukraine , the United States and Israel . In the course of 2004, the number of spam e-mails sent by him decreased because he was almost completely denied access to public e-mail systems. Instead, he now increasingly relied on ICQ to distribute his spam mails.

His name as the cause of spam emails became publicly known and spread through various posts (including other personal data) on the Internet. Numerous victims tried to take revenge by placing sex ads or ads for real estate bargains with the telephone number of their language school. His company's website has also been the target of denial-of-service attacks by hackers .

The then Russian Minister of Communication Andrei Korotkow , who personally received massive amounts of spam e-mails from Kuschnir, recorded a voice message to Kuschnir with the request to stop the mass sending of e-mails. The message was used by Golden Telecom, then one of Russia's largest Internet service providers , to repeatedly dial ALC's phone number via computer and play Korotkov's message.

Between 2002 and 2005, Kuschnir and his company tried to get Internet access via the Internet provider RiNet, but this was rejected several times by RiNet. Eventually he got internet access from a small internet company. It should be noted that Kuschnir has never been proven to have used his own Internet access or that of his company to send spam.

A lawyer named Anton Sergo filed an official complaint with the Russian Antitrust Agency, which oversees Russian advertising. Kuschnir ignored the authorities' requests for information or to appear. In the end he did appear before the authorities and testified that he did not know who was sending the advertisement on his behalf. The complaint was then dismissed.

In April 2001, the State of Kansas ordered him and Michael Walker, co-owner of Sophim Inc., to stop their spam email campaigns to buy Sophim Inc. stock because Sophim Inc. At the time of the promotion was not yet registered and neither Kuschnir nor Walker were licensed as a stockbroker.

death

On Sunday, July 24, 2005 (a source cited July 27 as the date of death), Kuschnir was found dead in his apartment in Moscow, which he shared with his mother. An autopsy showed that he had died as a result of multiple blows to the head. The police did not believe in any connection with Kushnir's activities in the spamming area, but assumed a robbery . The police , according to his apartment was searched for valuables and robbed. According to witness statements , he was last seen leaving the famous Moscow scene bar Hungry Duck , accompanied by three women. In addition, remnants of a strong sleeping pill were found in a drinking glass in the apartment , which confirmed the investigators in their theory of robbery and murder. In August 2005, Russian media reported the arrest of four suspects in connection with the murder of Kuzhnir. The four claimed that Kuschnir tried to assault one of the four, a 15-year-old girl. To protect them, they would have hit Kuschnir on the head.

Much Russian media could hardly hide their joy over Kushnir's death , as he had massively overloaded many of the country's e-mail accounts. Among other things, his activities led to the fact that many foreign e-mail servers blocked or refused to accept all e-mails originating from the top-level domain .ru , which made it difficult for many Russians to communicate with the rest of the world to get in contact by email. Although he was of course not the only cause of the Russian spam problem, he embodied the cause for many Russians and foreigners like no other.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Anticopyright.ru-Wiki entry on Vardan Kuzhnir . Retrieved February 11, 2015.
2. ^ ^{A b} Mark Looy: The Sleazy Life and Nasty Death of Russia's Spam King , Wired . March 2, 2006. Retrieved February 11, 2015. 
3. Jumped to Death: Notorious Russian Spammer Murdered , Der Spiegel . Retrieved February 11, 2015. 
4. ↑ Sophim, Inc. Michael Orrin Walker Vardan Kushnir - Emergency Cease and Desist Order . Retrieved February 13, 2015.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Russian Police Claim Biggest Spammer's Murder Solved , Armeniapedia: the online Armenia Encyclopedia. August 15, 2005. Retrieved February 11, 2015.