In computer news this week:

Lead: Inside the internet spam can - part 3

90% of all spam received by Internet users is sent by a hard-core group of under 200 spam outfits, and most of them are listed at www.spamhaus.org that's spam -h-a-u-s dot org spelling, a special project of spam fighters. Here you will find their mission statement - to stop and block spam from known spam gangs, and at this site you will find a listing of the most notorious spammers.

They maintain the SBL - Spam Block list - a database of addresses of known spammers. This information is updated periodically and used by many internet service providers.

Spamhaus.org also maintains the ROSKO list - The registry of known spam operations verified to have been kicked off at least 3 ISP's for repeated spam offenses.

In you can look at the ROSKO list, and learn about the most notorious spammers, of which several are legendary.

One of the more notorious listings is Bill Waggoner of Las Vegas. Waggoner is a former dj/musician who turned to spamming. He hides behind aliases, and specializes in spamming dubious sex aids and quack weight loss cures.

ROSKO lists his real name and known address, domain names he owns or is associated with, samples of spam he has sent over the years, spam schemes he has been associated with, partners in spam, and the current actions against him.

And here at ROSKO you will find the most notorious spammer of them all, Alan Ralsky, known as the king of all spammers. He may be the most despised man on the internet, and a lot is known about him. His rap sheet, as they say, goes on for pages.

Alan Ralsky is a 57 year old man, who lives in West Bloomfield Minnesota in a new 8000 sq foot 3/4 million dollar house - called The house that spam built. Ralsky is a former insurance businessman who has served jail time, was convicted of falsifying documents, lost his license to sell insurance, and has filed personal bankruptcy. But around 1997 he bought a couple computers and got into the internet mass marketing business, and is now the king of spam.

His home address is published here, pictures of him, his house, his neighborhood, as well as other personal information, along with all the litigation against him, and last known email addresses and cell phone numbers he uses.

And one of the most interesting articles you will find about him is entitled "Internet spammer can't take what he dishes out". You see, anti-spammers are inundating Ralky's home snail mailbox with thousands of pieces of paper mail daily. They order catalogues, flyers, ads and brochures under his name and home address and the post office delivers paper by the cartload to the king of electronic spam. The anti-spammers also try to track Ralsky's email address and inundate him with anti spam email, and the do similar things to his cellphone.

And the king of spam says that "these people are out of their minds - they're harrassing me" and he has asked the local city attorney to sue the antispammers.

This from a man who maintains a database of 250 million email addresses to spam, and who says he has never done anything wrong and that he runs a legitimate business.

So the reasons for spam are simple; it's easy to do and profitable. And we know who the spammers are, and how they operate. But today they can still stay one step ahead of the law, and we still can't catch them, or prevent spam.

For Raw Bytes, This is Frank Delaney

POB 222 Spangle, Wa 99031 (509)245-3736 624-7230