Spam: Spam King arrested in US.

Two years ago, Scott Richter was named "The Spam King." But so was Alan M. Ralsky. Ralsky's 8,000 square foot house was quoted as being worth USD750,000 all earned from the mass mailing of commercial mail which, by some estimates now makes up some 90% of email. Ralsky is a convicted fraudster who once ran a half-a-million dollar a year insurance business. And in 2002, Ralsky paid Verizon a cash settlement and undertook not to use its networks to send spam. In 2005, he said "I am not a spammer, I am a commercial emailer."

But since the FBI took away Ralsky's equipment, and more from his nephew's home, the tide of spam has increased, in part because of legislation such as the Can Spam Act in the US and other laws around the world, few of which actually prevent spam, but merely define it in such a way that it can be used within the law. The UK's law is particularly weak, allowing as it does business-to-business mail free passage. Despite data protection laws, the UK does not prevent the sale or other transfer of email addresses and companies spam from the UK advertising lists of names for sale.

Richter agreed a USD7 million dollar settlement with Microsoft - a pyhrric victory for the company because there were two bankruptcy petitions outstanding against Richter. But as a part of the deal he agreed not to spam unwilling parties and to have his business monitored for three years. That has had no adverse effect on spam, either, despite Microsoft's claim that Richter was the third biggest spammer in the US.

Yesterday, another "The Spam King" was arrested in Seattle. Interestingly, just across the lake from where the others were arrested in Michigan. Alan Soloway has been charged with multiple counts of fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering.

Soloway has been spamming since 2003. One question is why it's taken so long to force him off line. Another is why the indictment depends not on the Can Spam act but on pre-existing offences - the answer to that is simple: the Can Spam Act is so full of holes that conviction is easy to escape.

Strangely, most of Soloway's spamming activity were not related to marketing the products of third parties: he produced and marketed software. Software that can be used to send spam. So his arrest is not the end of the story, and spam will not significantly decrease following his arrest. For out there, aside from everyone else, are the spawn of his four year marketing campaign, all sending you the stuff you don't want.