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Spammer Alan Ralsky Pleads Guilty
Czmyt sends the excellent news that one of the US's most notorious spammers has pleaded guilty and could serve 6 years in jail. "Five individuals pleaded guilty today in federal court in Detroit for their roles in a wide-ranging international stock fraud scheme involving the illegal use of bulk commercial e-mails, or 'spamming'... Alan M. Ralsky, 64, of West Bloomfield, Mich., and Scott K. Bradley, 38, also of West Bloomfield, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and to violate the CAN-SPAM Act. ... Ralsky and Bradley also pleaded guilty to wire fraud, money laundering, and violating the CAN-SPAM Act. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Ralsky acknowledges he is facing up to 87 months in prison and a $1 million fine..."
Hang him from the nearest lamp post and then burn him.
Yeah, we should only allow company executives and rich investors to take vast amounts of money through share price manipulation.
We do have more lamp posts.
A little perspective please...
Yes, spam is damn annoying and the guys deserve imprisonment, and confiscation of every penny they earned through spam. But to compare fraudulent execs favorably to these, is a little overboard. Cheating you out of your money is lesser crime than spam?!?!
I'm much more funny, interesting and insightful than the moderators think
...involved leaving 10% of him here, sending 50% to the Prince of Nigeria, and sending 40% to the corrupt Nigerian government officials as a bribe. It has worked well for generations - But we'll need your help to complete the transaction...
Never underestimate the potential of Human stupidity. -Heinlein
Hey, at least those execs and investors didn't clog up my inbox with V|agr@ ads
1999 called. They want their spamfilter back.
Yeah, we should only allow company executives and rich investors to take vast amounts of money through share price manipulation.
Not to worry. If there are three things we have in abundance, it's rope, lamp posts and gasoline.
My blog
Cheating me out of my *time* and the usefulness of email *every* *dang* *day*? It's a close call....
I was going to post the sentiment until I saw the other AC above had beaten me to it.
Once he's in jail, we need to find out who his cellmate is, so we can send him inordinate amounts of penis enlargement ads.
If you open yourself to the foo, You and foo become one.
Thanks for the in depth analysis...
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
"Greetings friend, this is Homer Simpson, aka, Happy Dude. The courts have ordered me to call everyone, and apologize for my telemarketing scam...I'm sorry. If you can find it in your heart to forgive me, send $1 to Sorry Dude, 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield. You have the power!"
Finally we make real money from SPAM!
That is less money that you will have to pay for downloading 25 songs, at least.
This guy was my neighbor when I was growing up. It doesn't surprise me that he grew up to be a spam king, he was always looking for a way to 'get rich quick' and had a more than average understanding of computers (and a less than average understanding of just about everything else). I can remember him running some sort of telecommunications software on his Apple II every time I was over at his house playing with his daughter. Now looking back on it, I wonder what he was doing and if it was legal. Then again he gave me hundreds of pirated Apple II games at the time so probably not (although I was one happy 10 year old).
Let's see, spammers provide financial incentive to operate botnets that do billions in damage. My mail server rejects over 99% of all incoming mail as spam. The remaining fraction of a percent is about 25% spam. Fail2ban triggers on about 1000 hosts attempting to brute force an SMTP password every single day. If I tail the logs, it's a continuous stream of crap 24/7. I could do without that.
It is a close call. I suppose we just need to make BOTH into permanent porta-potty scrubbers.