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Spam King Lives Large off Others' E-Mail Troubles

Posted by Hemos on from the eating-off-of-others dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Those who are fighting spam will tell you that one of the most notorious spammers out there is Alan Ralsky. Well, the Detroit Free Press has a very interesting article on him. This guy is about as unrepentant as they come, and he's saying he wants to branch out into delivering pop-up spam via the Windows Messanging service present on most Windows boxes. If you sysadmins out there have been wavering about whether to block spam-friendly networks, read this article, then go to The Spamhaus Project and SPEWS and start getting IP ranges to block." Update: 11/25 12:35 GMT by H : Yep, it's a dupe. Nope, I haven't had my coffee yet.

4 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. Dupe by Koyaanisqatsi · · Score: 5, Informative

    Read the original version if you want

  2. What's that address again? by imag0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ralsky agreed to this interview and the tour of his operation only if I promised not to print the address of his new home, which I found in Oakland County real estate records.

    Hehe. Looks like someone is going to get some hatemail. Nice of Mike Wendland to slip that in there like that.

  3. Slashdotting spamvertized sites may help... by DocSnyder · · Score: 5, Informative
    In Germany we have a BIG problem with porn dialer spam. Most of these spammers use accounts on the Canadian freeweb hoster "netmails.com", who refuses to kick spamvertized sites even on several spam incidents which have been spamvertizing the same accounts for weeks. We suspect "pink contracts" between the spammers and Netmails as well as between Netmails.com and its uplink AT&T Canada to keep these accounts and the spamhaus Netmails.com online.

    Lots of the spam recipients are just fed up, and after each spam run thousands of annoyed people slashdot spamvertized accounts on Netmails.com until it blows the whistle. With the effect that "paying customers" look for a new hoster with better performance and will no longer supply Netmails.com with money. Hosting costs (traffic) on Netmails.com's side are growing, income is shrinking - so finally Netmails.com will have to change their spamfriendly business model or go down.

    If spammers and spamfriendly hosters will make the experience of each spam wave resulting in an enormous amount of network traffic and server load, they will have to think twice whether their infrastructure withstands the next spam run...

  4. Re:Could someone please confirm... by BJH · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wrong one. That's his former address, apparently - it currently belongs to someone else.

    The one you're after is:
    Buyer: ALAN M RALSKY
    Buyer Mailing Address:
    6747 MINNOW POND DR, WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI 48322
    Seller: BING CONSTRUCTION CO
    Property Address: 6747 MINNOW POND DR, WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI 48322
    Sale Date: 8/28/2002
    Recorded Date: 9/12/2002
    Sale Price: $ 740,000 (Full Amount)

    And a picture of the location is available at:

    http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/addressim ag e.aspx?t=1&s=10&lon=-83.4306683068011&lat=42.53497 71549766&alon=-83.43067008&alat=42.53497312&w=1&re f=A%7c6747+Minnow+Pond+Dr%2c+West+Bloomfield%2c+MI +48322