Mailwiper claims to be a tool to help get rid of email spam. But they have a history of advertising by sending email spam.

Rob Martinson runs Mailwiper.com. He also runs SpyWiper.com. Spywiper is sold as software to help protect you from spyware. However there are numerous reports from people who say that spyware has been loaded on to their machine, and it's purpose seems to be to convince the user that they must purchase Spywiper in order to get rid of it.

One good site which can help if you've been infected with spywiper is at http://www.netrn.net/archives2/cat_spy_wiper_aka_mail_wiper_inc.html. They have info there on removing the software and getting your system cleaned up again. They also have some good research on Rob Martinson.

There are some possible ties between Rob Martinson and some very well known, long term spammers. Sanford (Spamford) Wallace and Walt (Picklejar) Rines. See http://tired-of-spam.home.comcast.net/index.html for information. They have some information specific to mailwiper and spywiper at http://tired-of-spam.home.comcast.net/spywiper.html. They also show information that seems to indicate that SpyWiper is changing their name to SpyDeleter.

This page, http://thomasjulian.com/IE-popup.html, also believes that Spamford is tied to Rob Martinson. Using google, you can find some other pages with similar information.

This site also seems to have similar information.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,8636984~mode=flat~start=0 has more information on SpyWiper, including some suggestions for fixing your system once they have infected you.

Rob Martinson has a history of spamming. He runs (or used to run?) an operation called Eskrawl which has a history of spamming. More information on this company can be found here.

He used to run a spamming business called postmasterdirectmail.com, but after losing a lawsuit to PostMasterDirect , he seems to have stopped (at least under that domain.)

SPEWS has an entry for Mailwiper/eSkrawl.

2/18/2005 - Update : Mailwiper has filed to disolve their corporation. The lawyer handling the disolution is Charles Vaughn, PO Box 567712, Atlanta, GA 31156.

2/8/2005 - Update : The Cease and Desist notice that I received over this page has been added to ChillingEffects.org. I submitted it soon after receiving the C&D, and this is the first I've heard from them. Apparently, they have a long slow process before they add anything to their online database.

2/8/2005 - Update : While updating this page due to ChillingEffects adding the C&D, I also happened to notice that Mailwiper.com seems to no longer exist. Nor do websites come up for spywiper.com or spydeleter.com.

1/5/2005 - Update : Spamford agrees to stop infecting computers with advertising programs until a federal lawsuit against him is resolved. This seems a little silly - trusting Spamford is like expecting things to fall upward. No matter how hard you believe, it just isn't going to work out. Spamford claimed he stopped spamming years ago, after losing some big lawsuits, but he's obviously just been hiding his activities more than he used to, while play the same old sleaze-ball games as always.

10/24/2004 - Update : A TRO has been issued against Spamford. Fosters.com has the most in depth article I've seen.

Yahoo and news.com.au both have articles about the TRO. Those are AP articles, each essentially the same as the other.

One interesting (though likely meaningless) thing about these are that despite the fact that he is very well known, almost every article I've seen calls him Stanford Wallace - not Sanford Wallace.

10/13/2004 - Update : There are many stories showing up about the FTC and their complaint against Spamford. I'm not going to try to list them all, but I will mention the more interesting ones.
http://www.fosters.com/October_2004/10.13.04/news/ro_1013e.asp for instance, has some information from one of Spamfords ex-employees.
Mediapost.com seems to have a little more detail than most articles.

10/12/2004 - Update : For those that aren't familiar with Sanford Wallace, commonly known as Spamford, here is one page (of many) which will tell you about his history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanford_Wallace

Also, while updating today, I happened across another site with information on Spywiper. They have some good information on getting rid of the crap after you have been infected.

10/08/2004 - Update : The ties between Sanford "Spamford" Wallace, long time Spam King who has claimed numerous times that he reformed, are apparently accurate. Some time back the CDT (Center for Democroacy and Technology) filed a complaint with the FTC about Spywiper, Mailwiper's sister company. Apparently the FTC took them serious, as they have asked for an emergency injunction to shut the company down. Rob Martinson isn't mentioned in the artile - Spamford is. Mailwiper, Spywiper, and SpyDeleter are all mentioned. But Rob Martinson isn't. That's a bit surprising. Regardless, the rumors that they were connected are apparently true.

theunionleader.com had the first article I saw on it.
news.com.com has one of the better articles on the story, IMO.
Yahoo.com has also covered it.
USAToday has an article on it.
CNN.com has another article.
Slashdot has a discussion about it. This post on Slashdot has a copy of the complaint.
And Spamford himself has a page at www.passthison.com where he claims to be an innocent little angel. :^)

10/08/2004 - Update : Want to know what kind of person Rob Martinson really is? Want to hear about his conviction for crack cocaine? And how after his business partner bailed him out of jail, Martinson sued him? His ties to Walt Rines (aka Picklejar), a long term spammer? There are too many things I could point out - just read the article for the the whole story. Rob must be proud about the article about him. It's titled "A Hated Man".

3/29/2004 - Update : I put this page back online. The page had been offline for about a month after receiving a Cease and Desist notice. (It was sent to me, to my web host, and to *his* upstream provider.) (The link goes to chillingeffects.org, which has a copy of the C&D online.) Apparently Rob doesn't like having people talk about his business practices. My personal experiences have been removed, but you will find links to other sites involving MailWiper, SpyWiper, SpyDeleter, etc. He never explained exactly what he thought I was doing wrong, and his lawyer refused to return phone calls. Siccing a lawyer on me for telling the truth doesn't convince me that he is an ethical or honest person. You should keep that in mind if you are considering doing business with him.

3/24/2004 - Update : Rob Martinson is served a summons and complaint in Atlanta. John J. Gosbee filed a lawsuit against Rob Martinson, Mailwiper Inc, Spywiper Inc, and Eskrawl Inc, as well as "John and Mary Does". According to the complaint, he believes that Rob Martinson is a "racketeer" according to the RICO act. He also states that their actions result in "computer fraud", a class C felony. Amoung other things, he asks for "Certification of a class action on behalf of all victims of the Spy Wiper Trojan".

2/27/2004 - Update : Pulled this page down after receiving a cease and desist letter from a lawyer working for Rob Martinson. Rob seems to feel that my posting a web page about his business practices is libel. All evidence is that truth is a defense against libel, so I have my doubts.

2/20/2004 - Update : News.com has an article about the CDT and the complaint they filed with the FTC about MailWiper and SpyWiper. Similar stories can be found at Asia Media, at Globe Technology, and several other sites. Each article is very similar to the others.
Later I found this article on news.com.com about the complaint.

2/11/2004 - Update : The Center for Democracy and Technology ( http://www.cdt.org) has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC.gov) about Mailwiper, Inc and their SpyWiper software. You can read their complaint in .PDF format here. The CDT also has a webpage where you can file complaints about spyware. Complaints sent in via that website led to the complaint they sent the FTC.

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This page is located at http://www.whitis.com/mailwiper.htm.

Any correspondence sent in relation to this webpage will be made public at my discretion. Threats (legal or otherwise) will probably be posted publicly.

My NoSpam page is at http://www.whitis.com/no_spam.htm