Man Quits Job; Now Makes Millions Fighting Spam
Making spam work for you.
We all hate spam. At one time or another, it feels like the bane of our existence. Most of us just hit the delete button (or first tag it as junk) and the move on with our lives. Not Daniel Balsam, though, who quit his day job to take on spammers full time.
Balsam was working as a marketer eight years ago. After one too many pitches to enlarge one part of his body or another, he had enough. He quit his job and went to law school. Now he makes a living by suing companies that send him spam mail.
Now he takes spammers to court in California. It's now his full time job going after the companies behind junk mail, and by means of small settlements, Balsam has raked in well over $1 million.
"I feel like I'm doing a little bit of good cleaning up the Internet," Balsam said.
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My hero!
SEND HIM OVER HERE TO TOM'S.
And BTW, please +1 me.
I would've +1 because that was good, but you ruined it with the second like. And I'm tempted to minus 1..
I hate this guy. Ok more like I'm jealous of this guy, for doing what I always to do but didn't think it would amount to much other then me losing money lol.
I would +1 your post, but the system of +/- 1 is broken.
Great job for him, beneficial to me.
Now he just needs to sue the spammers here on TH
the biggest spammers here are the ones that pay toms to redirect you when you go to page and you have to click skip ad
Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus
...doesn't always work.
No Script add-on for FF...
I agree with duk3 however the spammers here at Toms Hardware seem to be mostly businesses in China (from domain lookups) so it could be unlikely that a lawsuit would be effective.
Perhaps a cruise missile though.I've already seen this story several days ago.
huh suing people for scam he can do that?
My hero!
Hope this article inspires other people in joining... 1000000 is a good inspiration too
^^^^
OH THE IRONY
^^^^OH THE IRONY
Funny that the Spam above your post was quickly removed too.
These Spammers don't even speak English or read the forums.
I'm guessing that each one is paid for copying and posting a beforehand translated and replicated Spam post.
Adblock Plus
Does not remove spam comments.
figth spam and make a living of it sounds great
now it's time to sue all those 800 number services that call, pester me about their products, and ask for donations.
and sue that damn indian lady telemarketer that calls my cell phone once a month with a bunch of cheering in the background..
this guy is my idol.
I can be sidekick pwease sir?
Dr. Spam
)
+1
Finally a lawyer suing bad people
The person who will destroy spam will get Nobel Peace Prise.
Is spam going down though? He is going after the companies that commercialize spam, which is great, but for every one you stomp down two more will pop up to replace them.
Yay
huh suing people for scam he can do that?
Yep, with a law currently on the books. You can sue any company that sends you spam you didn't sign up for.
I'm a bit torn here.. I mean I hate spam as much as anyone, but all of the small little law suits he's filing could be considered spamming the courts. And with all of his suits, has spam really been diminished all that much? I'm not seeing a reduction in my filters.
These Spammers are pissing me off, so I'm going to quit my job, go to school full time for 4 years, and go fight them!!
Sounds realistic. Why don't we all do that? Oh yeah, because we don't have enough money in the bank to pay for four years of law school and if we've been working we sure can't get a grant.
But...thanks for fighting spam for us. Please tell us your secret.
This is a man with a blessed life.
I'm a bit torn here.. I mean I hate spam as much as anyone, but all of the small little law suits he's filing could be considered spamming the courts. And with all of his suits, has spam really been diminished all that much? I'm not seeing a reduction in my filters.
He's not spamming the courts, he's using them as they were intended. It's like signing up for an e-newsletter. Comes in right next to the spam, and via the same channels, except it was intentional. These spammers are breaking the law, and the law states that he can sue them. Nothing wrong with following the law.
I wouldn't expect to see a noticeable reduction in overall spam unless many more people do the exact same thing this person is doing. Until spamming consistently loses money, it will still exist. Also, you're never going to get rid of the ones from other countries.
Tomshardware needs to hire him then.
[citation][nom]jj463rd[/nom]I agree with duk3 however the spammers here at Toms Hardware seem to be mostly businesses in China (from domain lookups) so it could be unlikely that a lawsuit would be effective.citation]
SHEEESH! I could tell from their English!
+100 to him. Hope spammers can take this as a warning.
Man Quits Jobs; Now Makes Millions Fighting Spam... ;-)