Andrei Korotkov, the Deputy Communications Minister of Russia, received so much email from an English-language school (despite writing to inform them he was already a fluent speaker of English), that he decided to take an ingeniusly apt revenge...

Mr Korotkov devised an automated system that sent a polite but firm phone message urging the language school to try another form of marketing - one that didn't indiscriminately cram people's inboxes. The system delivered its message, then re-dialled the answer phone, and delivered it again... and again... and again...

According to the Moscow Times, Mr Korotkov's revenge was so effective that the language school's phones were jammed - forcing them to ask people to get in touch with them over ICQ (the Internet chat service). The spammers clearly didn't know who they were messing with!