WebMed-Rx spammer and Microsoft

Spam Kings writes of the WebMed-Rx spammer and how Microsoft is going after him.

What is interesting in that article is that this guy has made so much money, and yet nobody has heard of him.

I have to admit that while I have a firm grasp on the technology involved, the major thing about spam that I just can't wrap my head around is how they are accepting payments for what they do and not settings off flags all over the place. If they really are making the millions that these articles claim, that is something that payment processing places would register immediately.
Banks and other businesses who are in the industry relating to processing payments have many safeguards in place to check on what people are doing in order to make the money which is being run through these systems. This is largely to track drug dealers and terrorists and to avoid money laundering (and tax evasion to some extent).

So perhaps I am an idiot, but I am just not understanding how these companies are getting past that due diligence done by the banks and payment processing centers, how they continue to be allowed to process, and why?
Especially in the case of something like this where they are essentially selling drugs online.

Posted by Eric at April 12, 2005 09:55 AM | TrackBack