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.