 Spammers
indicted in the US.
04/01/2008 |
Well know ‘spam
king’ Alan Ralsky of Michigan, USA, and 10 others including his son-in-law
Scott K Bradley, have been indicted in the US over the alleged use of junk
mail to promote stock fraud scams.
The
41-count indictment, which was the result of a three year investigation
led by the FBI, said Ralsky and co used unsolicited e-mail to pump up the
price of largely worthless stock in Chinese companies and sold the stock
reaping huge profits leaving Internet subscribers who purchased it
helpless before the inevitable crash and burn.
Members of the gang
charged in the indictment are Alan M. Ralsky, Scott K. Bradley and Judy M.
Devenow of Michigan. John S. Bown, William C. Neil, Anki K. Neil, James E.
Fite and Francis A. Tribble of California. James E. Bragg of Arizona,
Peter Severa of Russia and How Wai John Hui of Canada and Hong Kong.
According to the
indictment the operation also used illegal methods to maximise the amount of spam
that could be sent while slipping past spam filters and tricked recipients
into opening and acting on advertisements. This included using false
headers in email messages, proxy computers (ie botnet clients) to relay spam, falsely registered domain names to send spam and
misrepresenting the advertising content of email messages.
Prosecutors
described Ralsky as one of the most prolific spammers in the US. Until
2005, when the FBI raided his home and seized his computers, his operation
sent tens of millions of unsolicited email messages daily to Internet
subscribers, selling everything from sexual enhancement drugs, weight loss
products and worthless stock.
Investigators
believe Ralsky earned around 3 million USD during the summer of 2005 alone
as a result of the illegal spamming activities.
The group are
variously charged with several federal criminal offenses, including
conspiracy, offences against US anti-spam legislation (the CAN SPAM Act),
computer fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.
The most serious
charges, mail and wire fraud, carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in
prison and a $250,000 fine.
Ralsky was out of
the country however his lawyer, Philip Kushner of Cleveland, said:
“There’s a lot of people who are hostile to spam and I understand that,
but it’s a separate question about whether he’s done anything illegal.”
Kushner said he was arranging with Ralsky to return to the U.S. to plead
not guilty to the charges.
Source: The
Register and Freep
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