Scott Richter (born 18 July 1971) is the CEO of Media Breakaway,[2] formerly known as OptInRealBig.com LLC.[2] Other related companies are Dynamic Dolphin[3] and affiliate.com.[4] His companies were major senders of Email spam and he was at one time referred to as the 'Spam King', as at one point his company was sending some 100 million emails a day. He and his companies have been sued several times for mass sending unsolicited advertisements.
Scott Richter | |
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![]() Richter in 2019 | |
Personal information | |
Born | Scott Richter 18 July 1971 Virginia, U.S. |
Website | thebigjackpot |
YouTube information | |
Channel | |
Years active | 2015–present |
Genre | Casino Slots |
Subscribers | 421 thousand[1] |
Total views | 194 million[1] |
Last updated: May 3, 2023 |
Career
editNew York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued Richter in December 2003.[5] Facing a $500 million judgment in Washington state from the Microsoft case in March 2005, OptInRealBig.com filed for bankruptcy protection. The company claimed to have assets of less than US$10 million and debts of more than $50 million.
Microsoft's refusal to settle a $20 million claim based on Washington state spam law is what forced OptInRealBig to file for bankruptcy. Steven Richter, who is Scott Richter's father and President and General Counsel of Scott's company, commented "OptIn is profitable but for these lawsuits."[6] Richter paid $7 million to Microsoft in 2006 in a settlement arising out of the lawsuit alleging illegal spam activities.[7]
Richter was listed in the ROKSO top 100 spammers, but is no longer included there.[8] His company once sent some 100 million emails a day. One of the most famous emails was the offer of most-wanted Iraqi playing cards in 2003; Richter claims to have sold 40,000 decks before they were even printed. He was interviewed on The Daily Show by Rob Corddry on 30 March 2004.[9]
In January 2007, his company Media Breakaway was sued by popular social networking website MySpace for allegedly gaining access to members' accounts and using them to send millions of spam messages appearing to be from users' MySpace "friends".[10] Steven Richter, President and General Counsel of the company, denied the allegations. An arbitrator on June 16, 2008 awarded MySpace $4.8 million in damages and $1.2 million in attorney's fees against "spam king" Scott Richter and his Web marketing company, Media Breakaway LLC, of Westminster, Colo., "for barraging MySpace members with unsolicited advertisements." The award was 5% of the amount demanded by MySpace. MySpace alleged that due to Scott, "some of the messages were sent from accounts whose sign-on information had been hijacked by phishing."
In 2008, CBS News reported that Media Breakaway was charging people cell-phone charges for supposedly free ringtones.[11] Media Breakaway is the owner of Dynamic Dolphin, Inc, an ICANN accredited registrar who, according to KnujOn, is one of the few Internet registrars that serve the majority of spamvertised web sites.[12][13]
On November 22, 2013, ICANN terminated the Registrar Agreement with Dynamic Dolphin. This ends Dynamic Dolphin's business as a domain registrar. The reason given was "material misrepresentation, material inaccuracy, or materially misleading statement(s)" regarding "the registrar's failure to disclose that Scott Richter was the CEO, director, and Secretary of the registrar since 2012" and "the registrar’s failure to disclose Scott Richter’s felony conviction". ICANN has ordered that all domains registered with Dynamic Dolphin be transferred to another registrar within 28 days.[3]
Richter launched a YouTube channel called The Big Jackpot in December 2016.[14]
In March 2017, Scott became a guest writer for Entrepreneur.com.[15] On August 31, 2017, entrepreneur.com published an article by Scott Richter entitled, "Tips to Make Money on YouTube."[16]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b "About The Big Jackpot". YouTube.
- ^ a b "Document 20061288133" (pdf). Colorado Secretary of State, Search Business Database.
- ^ a b Serad, Maguy (November 22, 2013). "NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF REGISTRAR ACCREDITATION AGREEMENT" (PDF). Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
- ^ Richi Jennings (June 2008). "Scott Richter's six-mil spam suit settlement". computerworld.com.
- ^ Hansell, Saul (2003-12-19). "TECHNOLOGY; Spitzer Files Suit Against 3 Over Spam (Published 2003)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
- ^ "DenverPost.com – Technology". 2005-03-30. Archived from the original on 2005-03-30. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
- ^ World Wide Web – MySpace Takes On the 'Spam King'
- ^ "The Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO)". Retrieved 24 November 2012.
- ^ YouTube – CPA Empire Scott Richter
- ^ "MySpace sues alleged big-time spammer". CNN. Reuters. January 22, 2007.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Ringing Up Big Charges For "Free" Tones". CBS News. February 22, 2008.
- ^ Brian Krebs (May 19, 2008). "Most Spam Sites Tied to a Handful of Registrars". The Washington Post.
- ^ "Rogue Domain Registrars – 1st Quarter 2012: A Deep Review of Illicit Internet Drug Traffic and ICANN Policy" (PDF). 2019-04-02. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-04-02. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
- ^ Schwartz, David G. "YouTube Slot Controversy Shows The Perils Of Your Side Hustle". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
- ^ Richter, Scott (2017-03-09). "The Future Of Native Advertising for Brands and Publishers". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
- ^ Richter, Scott (2017-08-31). "12 Tips to Make Money On YouTube". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2021-02-23.