Spam King Alan Ralsky Gets Four Years In Jail

from the how's-that-house-looking-now? dept

Remember Alan Ralsky? The "spam king" came to be well known online in 2002 after agreeing to a profile in the Detroit Free Press, where he bragged about all the spamming he did and the huge house it had bought him. The folks on Slashdot decided to do something about Ralsky, and started signing him up for all sorts of snail mail marketing offers, so his real life mailbox was overflowing with ads. The humor-impaired Ralsky apparently couldn't see the irony, saying he was going to sue the people involved. He never seemed to actually get around to that. Instead, while it took quite some time, law enforcement started investigating Ralsky. While he had loudly insisted that the CAN SPAM law wouldn't impact him, the FBI disagreed. Last year, he was finally indicted. Earlier this year he entered a guilty plea and has now been sentenced to four years in jail for his spamming and fraud activities -- reported in the same Detroit Free Press that ran that original profile of him. Maybe he should have avoided bragging about the mansion that spam built.

Filed Under: alan ralsky, fraud, sentence, spam

Proud, Bragging Spammer Alan Ralsky Pleads Guilty

from the about-time dept

Remember Alan Ralsky? He was the super proud spammer that way back in 2002 gave a defiant and proud interview with his hometown paper, the Detroit Free Press, where he showed off his home and other expensive purchases, all paid for with spam -- which he insisted was "the greatest business model in the world." So what happened? Well, the folks at Slashdot used the info in the article to figure out where he lived and started signing him up for a ton of snail mail marketing offers, overwhelming his actual mailbox. Rather than recognizing the irony, Ralsky flipped out. Apparently, it's only the greatest business model in the world when you're not on the receiving end.

It definitely took a while, but the law finally caught up to Ralsky, and he learned that "the greatest business model in the world" is actually called fraud -- and it can put you in jail. The FBI started investigating Ralsky in 2005, but he wasn't actually indicted until 2008. And, the latest news is that he's agreed to plead guilty and could face both jailtime and fines for wire fraud, money laundering and violations of the CAN SPAM Act (wow, it does sometimes work!). Of course, since Ralsky's time, spammers have gone underground and overseas. The era of the great proud American spammer who courted the press seems to be over.

Filed Under: alan ralsky, fraud, spam

Spammer Alan Ralsky Finally Indicted

from the and-not-just-for-spamming dept

If you've followed the spam world at all over the years, you know the name Alan Ralsky. He was considered a top spammer for many, many years, and was sued by Verizon at one point back in 2001. However, many in the tech world know him best for an incident in 2002. The Detroit Free Press did a story on Ralsky, where reporter Mike Wendland interviewed him, and had him show off "the house that spam built," an 8,000 square-foot house in a Detroit suburb. That story made its way to Slashdot -- where some commenters decided to publish the address of "the house that spam built," leading many, many, many Slashdotters to sign Ralsky up for all kinds of physical junk mail. Ralsky did not see the irony. Three years later, Ralsky's house was raided by the FBI during an investigation, but nothing more was heard about that case, until now. It took over two years, but Ralsky and a bunch of others have been indicted -- and the spam part should be the least of his concerns. The charges include: "conspiracy, fraud in connection with electronic mail, computer fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud." That's because Ralsky wasn't just spamming products for sale, he was using a botnet to run a pump-and-dump scam on Chinese penny stocks. It's unclear why it took over two years for the indictment to finally show up, but there are likely to be quite a few folks in the anti-spam community who are thrilled that something finally happened to Ralsky.

Filed Under: alan ralsky, pump and dump, spam, stock fraud, wire fraud