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Where's Sanford Wallace Now? 223

Posted by michael from the good-old-days dept.
capt.Hij writes "There is a story at Fosters about Sanford Wallace who is described as once being the 'King of Spam.' The story describes how he made lots of money in the early days of the internet but got tired of fighting the spam fighters. He is now the owner of a night club in New Hampshire. Here is how he describes his life now: 'Back in the day, I used to make lots of money surrounded by computers. Now, I make lots of money surrounded by beautiful women.'" If "Sanford Wallace" doesn't ring a bell, you need to read some old stories.
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Where's Sanford Wallace Now? More

Where's Sanford Wallace Now?

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  • Definately a decent trade-up in lifestyle. What's the statute of limitations on the associated crimes?
    • Which statute of limitations? The one for the legal system, or the one for vigilante justice?
    • It's statute of limitations, not... oh. Uh, nevermind. =P
    • I would guess it would be ~5 years, which is the statute of limitations for any crime which does not have a specifically defined statute of limitation (in New Jersey). Also, it is usually illegal to make a law, and then charge people with a crime that was committed before the law was enacted.
    • For him there is no statute of limitations. It is illegal to make a law and then charge people for offenses that happened before the law was enacted.
    • Definately a decent trade-up in lifestyle.

      I don't know, sounds like he's still a scam artist. I suspect a used car buisness in his future, if he doesn't wind up in fedral "pound you in the ass" prison, or wearing a Columbian Necktie first

    • Nah...in other words, he doesn't have anything to show for all his spamming. He owns a nightclub? Come on, that's nothing. Nightclubs are highly overrated as investments...the audiences are very fickle and will turn your club into a desert overnight. Plus, the owners usually want to own a club more than they want to run a business. With any luck, in a year we'll hear about him being prosecuted for cocaine dealing, or tax evasion.
  • Sounds cool. But AFAIK the average lifespan of nightclub owners is pretty short. Also, it's like working in a PC shop. Eventually the nice bodywork all looks the same.

    Sigh. I should be so unlucky.

  • Women? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Takara ( 711260 )
    'Back in the day, I used to make lots of money surrounded by computers. Now, I make lots of money surrounded by beautiful women.'

    Poor guy! Went from lots of money and computers to actually having to leave the house!? Shame

  • What a wonderful transition... (Score:5, Funny)

    by shik0me ( 235948 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @12:35PM (#7261209)
    He went from from silicon to silicone :)
  • *twitch* I had mercifully forgotten about that bastard.

  • They don't care (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MoonFog ( 586818 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @12:36PM (#7261219)
    "I didn't think there was anything wrong with what I was doing. It wasn't as annoying as telemarketing, because with e-mail, I wasn't interrupting anyone's dinner," Wallace said.
    To me, this is one of the biggest problem. These people don't realise that what they are doing is wrong, or they flat out don't care. When it comes to telemarketing I can always tell them to f**k off and never call me again, har to do with a spam mail which return adress is a fake.

    • Re:They don't care (Score:5, Interesting)

      by BJZQ8 ( 644168 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @12:42PM (#7261273) Homepage Journal
      Until there is some form of "allowable" vigilantism, spam will continue to increase. I once tried to get a particular spammer to stop bombarding me with messages...and eventually, he call my ISP and said I was harassing HIM...and of course HIS spam did not stop. I tried everything I could find, from contacting his ISP to trying to contact the people he was an "affiliate" for...nothing worked. That's one thing that an anti-spam bill should allow...even if we can't track down their servers in China or Thailand, we can darn well find the home of the original criminals, which are almost always in the US...and have a nice friendly conversation with them.

  • The more important question is. . . (Score:3, Funny)

    by endeitzslash ( 570374 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @12:37PM (#7261226)
    Who gives a shit?

  • spam or girls (Score:2, Interesting)

    by cnf ( 96794 )
    he used to send mails about hot girls
    now he pays others to send spam for him ?

    no, jokes aside, i wonder if an ex spammer WOULD use spam to promote his own new shiny bussiness ...

  • Mirror anyone?

  • It's already getting slow... (Score:3, Informative)

    by herrvinny ( 698679 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @12:38PM (#7261240)
    Spam king switches tune: Net ad guru finds new life running nightclub
    By NATE PARDUE

    Staff Writer

    Sanford Wallace, the owner of Plum Crazy nightclub on Route 11 in Rochester, poses at the DJ station where he spends the majority of his time. (Mark Avery/staff photo)
    ROCHESTER -- He may be known as "DJ MasterWeb" now to his nightclub regulars at Plum Crazy, but Sanford Wallace once ruled the Internet as the king of spam.

    By his own account, Wallace, who owns the hopping night spot Plum Crazy on Route 11, was, at one time, responsible for about 80 percent of direct Internet mailings sent to in-boxes around the globe.

    The mailings are popularly known as "spam" in the Web world and are virtually impossible to avoid, despite constant efforts to do away with them.

    But in the early 1990s, not many people had even heard of the Internet, never mind Internet spam.

    "It was junk mail. I have no problem using the term," said the 35-year-old Wallace.

    Wallace first learned the craft of computer programming in 1990 from the Chubb Institute, a couple of years before the Internet boom of 1993 and 1994.

    Prior to that, the Internet was mainly used by the government and military -- certainly not widely available to the passive computer owner.

    When the Web became accessible to the general public, Wallace's entrepreneurial mind began churning.

    Much like the junk mail that came through his old-fashioned mailbox every day, Wallace thought there must be a way to transfer that method to the rapidly growing cyberworld.

    Wallace found ways to collect a massive list of personal e-mail addresses. He then contacted businesses big and small and asked if -- for a fee -- they would be interested in getting their names out to hundreds, if not millions of people.

    In turn, the companies would send their information to Wallace, who formed a Philadelphia, Pa.-based company under the name Cyber Promotions in 1994. He would create advertisements, and send them off into the World Wide Web.

    Over the next three years, Wallace sent as many as 30 million e-mails a day to consumers from 10,000 clients, and made millions of dollars in the process.

    "I didn't think there was anything wrong with what I was doing. It wasn't as annoying as telemarketing, because with e-mail, I wasn't interrupting anyone's dinner," Wallace said.

    But some heavy hitters with very deep pockets didn't quite see it that way.

    From 1995 until 1997, Cyber Promotions was involved in 16 separate lawsuits, with companies like America Online and CompuServe.

    The basis of many of the lawsuits was that unlike phone lines, computers were considered private property, and Wallace was accused of violating that privacy.

    "People were essentially lining up at my virtual door," Wallace said. "I made a lot of lawyers very rich."

    Wallace also attracted the ire of Internet enthusiasts -- or computer geeks, as he classifies them -- who strongly voiced their disapproval and outright loathing of Wallace on message boards throughout the Web.

    The distaste infamously earned him the nickname "Spamford" in online circles around the country.

    The negative reactions and relentless lawsuits started to take their toll, and Wallace decided to get out of the business in 1997.

    "I was getting tired of the controversy. My goal was never to bother people," Wallace said.

    Wallace took another stab at Internet spamming with SmartBot, a permission-based system where marketers and consumers would agree to be sent spam e-mail, similar to the check boxes found on most online registration pages.

    The business lasted for a few more years until the dot-com crash of 2000, when hundreds of self-made millionaires lost their shirts on investments that peaked and fell in just a couple of years.

    That was it for Wallace's life as "Spamford."

    "A lot of people lost a lot of money. I did too, but there were people out there who got it a lot worse,"

  • Uh-huh. (Score:5, Funny)

    by FFFish ( 7567 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @12:39PM (#7261253) Homepage
    Sure, he made a lot of money on spam. And now he's surrounded by drop-dead gorgeous women.

    I also understand that he's incredibly handsome, hung like a horse, rescues puppies, and can cure leprosy with a mere laying-on of hands. He's on the Pope's short-list, can beat Kasparov in any chess match, and walks on water. Further, he is the inventor of a working perpetual motion machine, has single-handedly saved a small third-world nation from disaster, and loves his mother.

    He is not, of course, a habitual liar.

  • The original Spam King (Score:5, Informative)

    by Creosote ( 33182 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @12:40PM (#7261261) Homepage
    And if you think Sanford Wallace was the original "Spam King", you need to read some even older stories [wired.com].
  • Over there, in a box.

    The fluff gets up your nose.

  • Finish the quote... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "Now, I make lots of money surrounded by beautiful women...

    who find me repulsive.
  • A nightclub in NH? Somehow I am doubtful that is a very 'happening' place. Even better would be how easy it probably is to find the Night Club he is talking about. I mean, it is New Hampshire. A state that pays for social services an education by exploiting the vices of out-of-staters by cheap State-run liqour stores placed right on the border with Massachusetts.
    • Seacoast NH is actually a fun place to go out. It's actually a decent club. They have free limo service too, which is cool.

      Although last time I was there someone got a bottle broken over their head and got their neck cut up. Cops came, wouldn't let anyone leave, took everyone's name, etc.
    • Heh! I worked in a commission based store [radioshack.com] right across the border from MA. Right next to a liquor store too, which drew a lot of people. Of course, the best people to sell to were the people who were already drunk. :)

      Just my 8%-meals-tax worth
      RickTheWizKid
  • Way back then he declared on stage in Philadelphia that he was through sending spam (this was 1999) and his company would be legit. Didn't happen. Glad he is out of the tech world - BTW how does anyone know or even care about whether he has gorgeous women around him - I am pretty sure he was married back then. Ah well - one less spammer....
  • Foster's - Australian for "dead server."

    • Re:Ahh... (Score:1, Redundant)

      by cK-Gunslinger ( 443452 )
      ROCHESTER -- He may be known as "DJ MasterWeb" now to his nightclub regulars at Plum Crazy, but Sanford Wallace once ruled the Internet as the king of spam.

      By his own account, Wallace, who owns the hopping night spot Plum Crazy on Route 11, was, at one time, responsible for about 80 percent of direct Internet mailings sent to in-boxes around the globe.

      The mailings are popularly known as "spam" in the Web world and are virtually impossible to avoid, despite constant efforts to do away with them.

      But in the

  • Story found in "Stopping Spam" (Score:3, Informative)

    by Erwos ( 553607 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @01:00PM (#7261408)
    Shameless plug: the O'Reilley book "Stopping Spam" has a good history of Sanford Wallace, the so-called "Spam King".

    -Erwos

  • Samford's rights being violated? (Score:5, Informative)

    by xiaix ( 247688 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @01:00PM (#7261414) Homepage
    Condolences from all of us who wish him well in his new life. I hope this worked out ok. [fosters.com]

    Check out the club's webpage at
    http://www.clubplumcrazy.com/

    (Which amusingly has a free vip signup via email...)

    Or just wish him well via email. it lists an address of:
    masterwebfanclub@aol.com
    (I guess he did not want to deal with spam on his own domain, thus the aol account.)

    Finally, there is a newsgroup if you wish to find out more about the club itself:

    http://pub89.ezboard.com/bclubplumcrazy

    Lets be mature about this and not abuse these points of contact.
    • http://pub89.ezboard.com/bclubplumcrazy

      REQUIRES NO LOGIN

      use any login/pass...i like "transexual seeking vampire"
    • ...The Club Plum did fine." Methinks he is serving up something else in there besides alcohol. Going back to your old ways again, eh Samford?
  • From the website, www.clubplumcrazy.com [clubplumcrazy.com] (you might want to turn off sound before you go there):

    And guess what - you DON'T NEED TO WEAR A BULLET PROOF VEST... (quoted from Fosters about an event at the competition, 360 nightclub, Saturday Oct 11)... "a gun had been fired on the property" ... "He fired one round" ... You don't need to worry about gun fights at Plum Crazy! People come to Plum to dance and have fun, not to get involved in attempted first degree assault and gun shootings!

    Damn, I'm always see

    • Actually, in NH, this kind of violence is quite rare. The problem is all the people from MA coming up. Of course, I live in this area, and EVERYONE makes fun of the town of Rochester (pop: 33,000), even the people who live there.
    • The Plum Crazy in Raleigh got shut down as a public nuisance [nccrimecontrol.org] due to all the gunfire, gang fights, and a stabbing or two. Not to tar all the clubs by that name with the same brush, but the one in Charlotte had similar problems.

      Let's just say being a nightclub owner is not a business I'd like to be in.

      Chip H.

  • Take it from someone who lives in NH (Score:5, Informative)

    by AlabamaMike ( 657318 ) * on Monday October 20, 2003 @01:05PM (#7261450) Journal
    This club is almost as tired as all the spam email chubby used to send out. I think you'd be "Plum Crazy" to spend your time driving out to that spot in the sticks. I can tell you that his DJ skills are terribly lacking, and if it weren't for UNH (located a mere 15 miles from this club) he'd still be interested in turning a buck by sending out that garbage.
    -A.M.
  • I thought he was still running that junkyard/garage... oh, sorry, wrong sanford.

  • Darn (Score:5, Funny)

    by ptomblin ( 1378 ) <ptomblin@xcski.com> on Monday October 20, 2003 @01:06PM (#7261458) Homepage Journal
    Whenever I see that headline, I keep hoping the answer is "In hell, sharing hot lava enemas with Canter and Seigel".
  • "Oh, this time its real, I'm a-comin' 'Lizabeth"
  • I guess he just doesn't have any type of values. From Spam to a Night Club owner. Although I admit that a nightclub is better for society then Spam is. But still its shady type of job, dealing with barely legal business. In short I is just a scummy person, and he moral guidelines is roughly based if its legal then it is OK. Which is absolutely wrong reasoning.

  • Review of Plum Crazy (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @01:08PM (#7261483) Homepage
    Here's a review of Plum Crazy. [barmeister.com]
    • Plum Crazy
      Rt. 11
      Rochester, New Hampshire

      Summary:
      Price: Low
      Cover Charge: Always
      Patron Age: College Age

      Description:
      Plum Crazy is a Bar/Pub that has 2 bars with 15+ beers on tap. It also has pool tables and a dance floor. There is street parking available.

      Review:
      Great bars if your into drunken reprobates, and women with teeth you could count on one hand. Dance floor wreaks of fromunda cheese (fresh nightly). Overall, an experience I can only rank up with alien abduction, or a visit to the local church for "confession" with a priest.

    So Sanford can't run a good club, either.

    • Back in the day, Wallace's webserver once went kaput, all the content vanishing overnight leaving his hosted customers stranded. Wallace blamed it on an anti-spam vigilante hacker, claiming that he had logs and the identity of the perp thanks to tcpdump. No arrests were ever made. Interesting was his claim that the hackers managed to "destroy backup tapes". Either he was lying outright about a hacker and had just decided to take his customers' money and run or he was one of the dumbest fucking admins on
      • This bugger used to house his Cyber-Promo office in the same office complex as my old family doctor. I remember discovering his place quite by accident...a little non-descript sign on the door and all the windows covered with brown paper. He and his business were long gone, of course. This was right after his great server crash.

        RD

  • Women and penis size. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Thrakkerzog ( 7580 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @01:09PM (#7261493)
    I can understand why he is surrounded by beautiful women.. his penis must be enormous! I'm sure he wouldn't have sent out those member enlargement emails if he didn't test the product first!

  • In other news. (Score:5, Funny)

    by demigod ( 20497 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @01:10PM (#7261499)

    Plum Crazy nightclub on Route 11 in Rochester NY burned to ground in an overnight fire. The structure was a total loss. A statement form Rochester Fire Chief, Floyd Madison, "We have ruled this fire suspicious in nature. Perhaps the most bizarre thing is the number of charred cans of spam we found".

  • ...what are the police going to do when he winds of face down in a river? Narrowing down a field of a couple hundred million suspects who all have a motive could be a lot of work.

  • Sanford Wallace still runs a viral marketing website, PassThisOn.com. It changes users's home page by exploiting a, you guessed it, patchless security hole in Internet Explorer.

    A recent thread about it on GeekVillage is at:
    http://geekvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?s=3ac c1351f7aa1563a017c39513af8358&threadid=22196&g t; [geekvillage.com]

    Read down a ways to see where he comes into the thread - he actually posts defending his site.

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @01:12PM (#7261514)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • This guy [usc.edu] doesn't look much like Mel Gibson [20m.com]. But if he says he's surrounded by beautiful women I guess he must have something going for him [haro-online.com].
  • Quoted from his nightclub's site: http://www.clubplumcrazy.com/ [clubplumcrazy.com]
    • UPDATE! Yes, it's true! The dress code is HISTORY at Plum -- You CAN wear bandanas, skull caps, jerseys, caps, anything! Just keep it stylish and clean.


    • And guess what - you DON'T NEED TO WEAR A BULLET PROOF VEST... (quoted from Fosters about an event at the competition, 360 nightclub, Saturday Oct 11)... "a gun had been fired on the property" ... "He fired one round" ... You don't need to worry about gun fights at Plum Crazy! People come to P
  • He's an overweight, middle aged, bald white guy who's last job pissed off millions of people now owns a club and calls himself "DJ MasterWeb".

    He's a truly sad human being. The best we can hope for is that he never reproduces. By his looks and persona this shouldn't be a problem.

  • I think (Score:2)

    by GypC ( 7592 )

    ... he deserves a righteous ass-kicking.

  • Doesn't sound like my kind of club when this disclaimer is on the front page.

    "UPDATE! Yes, it's true! The dress code is HISTORY at Plum -- You CAN wear bandanas, skull caps, jerseys, caps, anything! Just keep it stylish and clean.

    And guess what - you DON'T NEED TO WEAR A BULLET PROOF VEST... (quoted from Fosters about an event at the competition, 360 nightclub, Saturday Oct 11)... "a gun had been fired on the property" ... "He fired one round" ... You don't need to worry about gun fights at Plum Crazy! Pe
  • Though it was 2 domains and 5 computers ago, I once had the... experience (I was going to say pleasure, but let's be honest) of trying to get Spamford to stop sending mail to my domain. He'd subscribed a harvester to the Cypherpunks list, so whenever I posted to the list, I got an autoresponder from him. It took a bit of looking, but I was able to uncover the admin addresses of several of his machines behind the front line of his domain, so I started sending invoices. He got them, too. Somewhere, I think

  • If there was, he'd be in the deepest pit of hell.

  • I hear they have a great pyrotechnic show.

  • Quoting from the article:

    The mailings are popularly known as "spam" in the Web world.... But in the early 1990s, not many people had even heard of the Internet.... Prior to that, the Internet was mainly used by the government and military.... When the Web became accessible to the general public, Wallace's entrepreneurial mind began churning.... Wallace found ways to collect a massive list of personal e-mail addresses.... He would create advertisements, and send them off into the World Wide Web.

    Stu

  • It's so cliche - it's mildly amusing.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @02:29PM (#7262105) Journal
    I don't know how many of you know any nightclub owners personally, but I've had the dubious "pleasure" of knowing several - and they all seem to fit a common profile.

    Usually, they're "has beens" or "wanna-be" rich and famous individuals who came into some money in the past (often via questionable means), and thought owning a nightclub was a great next step to take in their lives.

    The average nightclub only turns a decent profit for the first 6 months to a year it operates. Once it's not "new" anymore (and you've collected cover charges for all the "first tme" visitors who just wanted to check the place out), it's really tough to keep it hyped up and popular. Having a really creative niche helps immensely -- but even then, a niche is just that; catering to a small segment of the population who shares a love of whatever you're offering.

    There are many things more likely to make you decent money than owning a nightclub. So why do people throw their money at it? Simple.... They're fairly lazy and don't want to actually work at a job that makes them get up early each morning, and they yearn to be "cool". (If you aren't attractive enough to have a good-looking woman of your own, at least you can brag about all the ones surrounding you each night who really don't care if you live or you die.)
  • I remember reading about spamford on inet-access back in the 97-98 era here at work doing dialup tech support. And now I live 6 miles from him in a bee-line. *dark evil thoughts*

    ...*dark evil thoughts still going on*

    ......*muhwahahaaaa* *clicks post anonymous*

  • Guess you missed the Wired News story (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Screamingliner ( 713152 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @03:03PM (#7262413)
    Actually, Wired News did this story two weeks ago [wired.com].
  • Walter Rines. Walter Rines ... associate of "Spamford"... sounds familiar... oh yeah... the schmuck from whom I stole his girlfriend and married her... and then promptly divorced. A year later. Yeah, that's right... it's all coming back to me now.

    Worst day of my life (up to that point - I've had worse since) was when an issue of a popular computer magazine showed up in my mailbox (subscription) and the cover had a big honkin smilin' picture of my wife's ex. That was awesome. She wouldn't shut up about
  • This guy is living on his own planet.

    Beautiful women??? If you find sweatshirts and stretch pants stretched to the limit, or you are a connoisseur of camel toe, maybe. Actually, if you're in to teens who smoke and drink NH might be the place for you. That and Mechanixville, NY.

    The entire concept of "New Hampshire" and "night club" being in the same sentence is hilarious, especially when we're talking about Rochester NH. The only thing near Rochester is Canada. I'm surprised they even have electricity
  • He was the one behind the netscum list. For those who don't remember it, it was a list of anti-spammers that Spamford didn't like. When I made the netscum list, I was kind of ticked off about being slandered on the Internet by him. But it quickly became something of a mark of distinction, at least for a while.
  • Someone should spray-paint "Spam King" every few weeks on his bar. At least. For the man who basically invented spam, the gauntlet should never go down.

    It'd be cool if when he's 80 or so, someone punched him in the gut. Anti-spammer actions should be like the mafia... You never escape from them.

    Good thing I don't live in New Hampshire, because then I'd have to hate the fact that I'm too law abiding to do it myself.

  • The negative reactions and relentless lawsuits started to take their toll, and Wallace decided to get out of the business in 1997.

    "I was getting tired of the controversy. My goal was never to bother people," Wallace said.

    Translation: None of the millions of people, whose inboxes I clogged with some of my billions of pieces of spam were ever bothered by it. But a few corporations and lawyers thought they could make money off me, and that bothered me. Why wouldn't people leave me alone?

    Boo Fscking Hoo



  • "He would create advertisements, and send them off into the World Wide Web."

    It sounds like this writer from 'Fosters' is still stuck at the writing level of journalists during 'the early days of the internet' .
  • Someone should get printed up poster sized printouts of spam and stick them all over the outside of the club.

    'Enlarge your penis' 2 metres high!

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