« Front-row seat at the Virgina spam trial | Main | Recent media coverage »

November 4, 2004

Rewind with the time-travel spammer

By special arrangement with New York jazz-rock trio Groovelily, here's an mp3 file (5.8 Mb) of "Rewind," a tune inspired by spam king Robby Todino.

Also known as "the time-travel spammer," Todino is profiled in chapter ten of Spam Kings. From late 2001 until August 2003, he anonymously sent out over 100 million spams (one sample is here) in a quest for things such as "dimensional warp generators" and other gadgets for going back in time.

Lots of people thought it was a joke. But GrooveLily's Brendan Milburn found Todino's strange spams haunting.

"Tons of people ridiculed him and made fun of him in their blogs. I found his email amusing, but I also found some universal longing in his strange cry for help," Milburn told me in an email.

As chapter ten of Spam Kings explains, Todino was quite serious about his desire to rewind time. To finance his quest, he sent out millions of spams touting more ordinary junk, such as detective software and information about "free" government grants.

(Milburn's lyrics for "Rewind" are online here.)

Posted by brian at November 4, 2004 12:38 PM