Russian spammer murdered

[robyrob]

the original rumor had it that he was bludgeoned to death because he was so annoying, the police had to sort through thousands of death threats looking for potential suspects...

from the Register Tuesday 26th July 2005 10:56 GMT

Notorious Russian spammer Vardan Kushnir was found bludgeoned to death in his Moscow apartment on Sunday. He was killed by repeated blows to the head, Russian news agency Interfax reports .

Kushnir, 35, headed the Center for American English, whose aggressive spamming practices have angered net users. In the past the Center’s telephone was advertised as a contact number for "cheap sex services". Separately, disgruntled surfers have blitzed the American English Center with nuisance phone calls and returned e,mail messages. Lawmakers are considering the introduction of anti-spam laws but the practice remains legal in Russia and Kushnir remained defiant about his "right to spam".

The public prosecutions office of Moscow's Central administrative district has yet to establish a motive for Kushnir's death, but is treating the case as murder.

Russia’s Interior Ministry reports 1,935 unsolved murders, 73,000 burglaries and 11,400 robberies between January and May 2005, Mosnews reports . ®

apparently it turns out to be a robbery - so much for the SPAM vigilantes pissed:

Russian Spammer's Murder Not Internet-Related July 26, 2005

The Moscow man's bludgeoning was the result of a robbery. TechWeb News

The violent death of a notorious Moscow-based spammer that sparked speculative theories he was murdered by someone tired of spam was just the result of a botched robbery, a Moscow newspaper reported Tuesday.

The killing of Vardan Kushnir, 35, was a robbery gone bad and not connected with Kushnir's Internet activity, investigators told the paper.

Kushnir had been found beaten to death in his Moscow apartment on Sunday. Almost immediately, observers speculated that Kushnir was killed by a disgruntled Internet user.

The director of a Moscow English-language center and one of the biggest spammers in Russia, Kushnir previously had been the target of death threats, his company's Web site repeatedly hit by denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, and his American Language Center's phone system often overloaded with automated calls, all in reaction to his commercial spam operation.

Russian-language media reports of his death were filled with vitriol, and little sympathy. "The Spammer Had It Coming," one headline read. "An Ultimate Solution To The Spam Problem" read another.

Moscow police, however, see no connection to the American Language Center's spamming.

According to the Kommersant, a Moscow newspaper, police said Kushnir met three women in a club, and invited them to his apartment. The women then spiked his drink, but when Kushnir woke up to find the women's accomplices taking credit cards, a laptop, money, and other items, he was bludgeoned to death, the paper said.