A Weblog About Topics and Issues Discussed in the Book Spam Kings by Brian McWilliams

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March 18, 2006

US spam king confirms move to New Zealand

Television New Zealand's "One News" program has obtained an on-camera interview with Brendan Battles, in which he admitted to being the American spam king who had apparently retired last year. brendan-battles.jpg

Rumors of the Florida spammer's relocation started last October, when someone anonymously posted a report of Battles' move to Kiwiland to the Nanae newsgroup.

If Battles had planned to turn over a new leaf in New Zealand, those hopes began to unravel when he made the mistake of spamming a New Zealand-based anti-spammer (sample here) earlier this month. The message was part of a small spam run advertising broadband wireless from Wired Country Direct, a unit of Compass Communications.

Following the March 3 spam incident, Computerworld published a story this week in which Battles, who now resides in Auckland, denied he was the same person reviled by anti-spammers.

Battles, who regularly tangled online with anti-spammers in the past, has returned to the Nanae newsgroup. Yesterday he blamed participants for getting him fired from Compass, where he worked as a territory sales manager.

"Well, done making me look bad, what an effort on your part. Happy that I lost my job? Well hopefully I can find something better," he wrote.

Let's hope that by "something better" he means a position that doesn't involve spamming.

Posted by brian at March 18, 2006 12:08 PM

 

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