(Click on the image for Simon van Zuylen-Wood's report in the Washington Post)
Jones sustained his lifestyle by spamming people with robo-calls. He worked with a revolving cast of co-workers under the auspices of about a dozen corporations. At the core of his enterprise was a computer program capable of blasting out irritating, prerecorded phone messages to just about anyone in the country. Jones allegedly paid for exclusive access to the program, which he then rented out to other robo-callers. He and his associates also used it to peddle their own off-brand products, including auto warranties, home security systems and search-engine optimization tools. Anyone curious or lonely enough to listen to one of Jones’s robo-calls, then press “1,” would be directed to a call center, which often meant one or two of Jones’s underlings sitting in a room in Irvine, Calif.