Death to Russian Scammers

Monday, November 5th, 2007 by Janet Meiners

Death to Russian Scammers

Here’s one way to eliminate spam – corporal punishment. We all hate spam, especially the ones that advertise Viagra, and pills for penis enlargement (and as I write this I’m thinking of the related ads I might trigger just by writing this). You can rest easy knowing that the man responsible for around 30% of those ads won’t be spamming you anymore. He’s dead. Or at least that’s what everyone thought. Now it appears the story is a scam.

The story made the home page of Digg, and quickly got picked up by bloggers. The story goes that a man named Alexey Tolstokozhev (which in Russian means ‘Thick Skin’) was shot in his luxury house near Moscow. Shot by Russian hit men.

Supposedly, Tolstokozhev was a black hat affiliate marketer. Links in the e-mails he sent took people to an online pharmacy. Tolstokozhev got a share of the revenue from the sales. This is a well known scheme employed by spammers worldwide. The story said Tolstokozhev is estimated to be responsible for up to 30% percent of all this type of spam.

The fictional Tolstokozhev was said to make more than $2 million last year. (That’s decent in the US but in Russia it’s a lot more since the average Russian makes less than $5k a year). This is a second murder of a spammer in Russia. Another Russian spammer, Vardan Kushnir, was assassinated in 2005. But no one can substantiate the story or the people involved.

Want more marketing news & views? Follow Marketing Pilgrim's Andy Beal on Twitter!

Similar Stories in: Affiliate, Display, Rumors | Forward:

Share this post

9 comments on “Death to Russian Scammers”

Dean Says:

November 5th, 2007 at 4:08 pm

Or people could just stop clicking on the damn emails for penis enlargement!!!!!! I mean the pills don’t work…er…I mean…that’s what I heard…ummm…well my friend said that…uhhh….nevermind.
csalomonlee Says:

November 5th, 2007 at 5:11 pm

Careful. The Chinese Government may actually take you seriously! For a country that punished someone over poor controls on food exports, they may do this for spamming as well.
Water Subject Says:

November 5th, 2007 at 5:20 pm

Russian Mafia catches up with technology trends and seems take under control the internet market too
minicix Says:

November 5th, 2007 at 5:29 pm

And these must be next target

Alan Ralsky United States
Alex Blood / Alexander Mosh / AlekseyB / Alex Polyakov Ukraine
Alexey Panov – ckync.com Russia
Amichai Inbar Israel
Amir Gans Israel
Andrew Chandler / Chat Radio United States
Andria Petito / Tranzact Media United States
Andy Miller / Great Loan Network United States
Anton Gorodov / Gorodetsk – srx / s-rx Russia
AWG aka youngjoo aka qline Japan
Janet Meiners Says:

November 5th, 2007 at 5:39 pm

Where did you get this list?
-Janet
Bob O'Donnell Says:

November 6th, 2007 at 11:25 am

Dean – LMAO. Very funny mate, very funny indeed.
10K RSS Bontb Says:

November 6th, 2007 at 12:37 pm

I freeking hate those emails lol, from viagra etc… not that I click on it or anything I am staying away from that at least for 30 years from now.
Steven Bradley Says:

November 6th, 2007 at 1:26 pm

I hate those emails as much as the next person, but I’m not sure someone deserves to die over them so I’m glad to hear the story was made up.

Dean very funny and yes people just stop clicking on the ads. The reason we all get them is because someone is clicking and buying. As hard as that may be to believe someone is clicking.

nminicix, I’m curious about that list too. Care to expound on it a little?
forumistan Says:

June 11th, 2008 at 7:07 pm

@minicix the list is not true.

Marketing Pilgrim