Godfather of Spam gets 51 months in prison

[Justin]

The penalties for being a spammer are no joke these days. Sanford Wallace, often referred to as the "Spam King", is experiencing this firsthand, as he deals with a $711 million judgment against him for spamming Facebook. Now, another legendary spammer is also facing a steep penalty for his spamming ways. Alan Ralsky, called the "Godfather of Spam", will be paying for his crimes in a jail cell, serving 51 months in prison for his career in sending mass amounts of junk email.

Ralsky has spammed the world for more than 12 years and has been responsible for many of the common scams we see today. One of the frauds that helped him earn his jail sentence was a "pump-and-dump" stock scheme, in which Ralsky purchased mass amounts of stock and then sent millions of spam emails urging other people to do the same. As people took the bait, Ralsky would cash in on the stock. This ended up costing him in the end, as he wasn't just tried under the CAN-SPAM Act, but was also indicted for money laundering and a host of other crimes.

Spam has been a widespread issue of the Internet since nearly the beginning. As the costs associated with it have risen and the amount of spam itself has grown to ridiculous proportions, people have banded together to fight the problem. Security companies and law enforcement have often worked together to combat the issue, resulting in people being fined and server farms being destroyed.

Still, the problem remains. This latest prison sentence may do little to curb spam in the short term, but it will serve as a reminder that at least someone is working on an issue that may seem impossible to fix.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/37086-godfather-of-spam-gets-51-months-in-prison.html

 

[fref]

I guess that's good news, but as the article says, this probably won't make much of a difference in the end. It's unbelievable that there is still no real solution for spam.

 

[swilllx2p]

I would bet that this guy will more than likely not be spamming anymore. In my opinion jail sentences are what is really needed if they really want to put some sort of an end to the spam problem. If people keep getting harsh jail sentences it may scare a lot of others away from doing it.

 

[Adhmuz]

Its nice yo see action being taken against some of the bigger spammers out there but as long as people have email accounts there wil be someone new to step up to the plate. Using a good filter for your inbox is the best way of preventing such a problem, gmail does a good job IMO. It would be nice if people who do this could just stop, but the same goes for people who make viruses and any other destructive tools used to cripple a computer. It would be like a world without war... and thats not happening soon either.

 

[paynetrain007]

I think the best way to stop spam is to educate people about giving out their email. In most cases spam is sent to those who sign up for everything under the rainbow. I personally use an alternative email to sign up for most things.

 

[kuyper]

Not everyone has the luxury, but I use a single email address per website - even my friends are each given a custom email address - this gives me ultimate control over received mail. If an address is even compromised, I have to contact just the "owner" of that email address, give them a new one and /dev/null anything sent to the old addy.

Works for me.

That said, I also filter all my email via Gmail and with their huge collection of mail, they're awesome at identifying spam and most regular "junk" never even makes it to my inbox.

It's a shame we have to jump through all those hoops.

I hope they feed this scumbag nothing but spam for the rest of his sentence

 

[lupinnktp]

Another one bites the dust. Well, this is good news, even though i believe spammers are like mushrooms, you pluck 1, another will juz pop up to take the place.

 

[matchu]

I totally agree with @paynetrain007 on this one. I only give out my email to friends/family and to reputable organizations. And I use a spare address for sites that i plan on using transiently or don't trust. Haha.

 

[strategic]

Awesome!
It's great to hear that these guys actually get punished.
Let's face it, it isn't rocket science to figure out where all this spam originates.
Now all the wannabes will think twice before spamming others...

 

[pbartman]

Unfortunately it won’t make much a difference but at they’re hacking away at the spammers. I block 99% of the mail coming into my system. Think of the traffic all that spam generates, I’m only 1 mail system blocking thousands of emails a day.,

 

[slh28]

My gmail accounts blocks over 99% of spam - I rarely get any in my actual inbox. So as long as google, yahoo, M$, etc. stay ahead of the spammers, I don't really see the problem. Unless of course you go into the spam folder and click on an interesting link

 

[LightHeart]

It's good to see the legal system working however as several have stated it won't make that much of a difference in the amount of spam. Who buys things from spam emails anyways, I've never figured that one out. If spam gets through the email filter, just delete them.

 

[BlindObject]

Ugh, I hate spammers. Good thing gmail is awesome at keeping them away. He deserves what he got. Lol they should make him eat a can of spam for every million he caused.

 

[Kibaruk]

Amazing example made out of the spam king!

Hope they learn.

 

[Deso]

Sure I don't like spammers but 41 months seams a bit extreme for just spamming....
This could pave the way for more internet crime laws and punishments

 

[slh28]

@ Deso: This isn't just spamming though, the guy was trying to manipulate the price of stocks which he owned. Which is a pretty severe crime in the financial world

 

[schallie]

It is a good way of making an example, but that doesn't mean the fight is over. I get a lot of spam in my mailbox and it is really starting to annoy me. :S

 

[Deso]

@ Deso: This isn't just spamming though, the guy was trying to manipulate the price of stocks which he owned. Which is a pretty severe crime in the financial world

Oh the atricle didn't mention that > . >

 

[TomSEA]

As others have mentioned, this won't do much to stop spam. But what the heck - I'll take it! Slap these fools away and throw away the key. Can you imagine the speed of the Internet without being clogged up by all those worthless e-mails being sent out by the billions?

 

[FrankTank]

It's so true that spam has gotten too out of control. Especially for those of us who use free services like gmail, hotmail, etc. I can't wait for the day to check my email and not have to delete a handful or so of junk.

But every once in a while I will get one that will make me laugh.... like that time my distant cousin was an Arabian prince and left me 5 million dollars. I never heard back from that guy..huh

 

[Guest]

Deso hit on the key point. Spamming was not the only crime here. Manipulating stock prices was the offense he got really slapped with.

51months is a bit excessive though. I'd settle for 24 months, and for bankrupting him by taking every single penny from him. We can use that money to help fund the next generation of people combating these scum bags.

 

[Xclusiveitalian]

Considering that with good behavior he will have far less time im thinking 10-20 years would have been better because his victims were world-wide.

 

[Deso]

Guest said:
Deso hit on the key point. Spamming was not the only crime here. Manipulating stock prices was the offense he got really slapped with.

51months is a bit excessive though. I'd settle for 24 months, and for bankrupting him by taking every single penny from him. We can use that money to help fund the next generation of people combating these scum bags.

Thank you for noticing !!

I still wonder tho who would buy stock based on information in random e-mails they get?
Anyone who would do that is a lunatic.

 

[Fragrant Coit]

The scariest aspect to me is that there must be people who respond to, or purchase from Spam. If people were more careful, then there'd be no Spam.

 

[mit2591]

Well it's in human nature not to be satisfied with what they have and wanting more and more.The guys who bought stocks may thought in such a way like"What's bad with spending couple of thousand dollar buying stocks when i am buying them legitimately.May be i should just take a chance and see what happens" AND the fish is in the trap.

Morale of the story-"Never Believe in "Easy money" or "take a chance".Money does not come easy.You need to work hard for that.