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Alan Ralsky
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alan Ralsky (born c. 1945) is an American convicted fraudster, most well-known for his activities as a spammer.
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According to experts in the field, Ralsky is one of the most prolific sources of junk e-mail worldwide. Unlike most spammers, he has provided interviews to various newspapers, although he claimed to be a commercial e-mailer rather than a spammer. He stated that his was a legitimate business which complied with all laws.[1]
Ralsky apparently began his spamming career when his licenses to sell insurance were revoked in Michigan and Illinois in 1996.[2]
He gained much of his notoriety following a December 2002 interview with The Detroit News. The article was soon posted to Slashdot and the address of his newly built home was posted to Slashdot not long after that. Hundreds of Slashdot readers then searched the Internet for advertising mailing lists and free catalogs and signed him up for them. As a result, he was inundated with junk mail. In a Detroit Free Press article on December 6, 2002, he is quoted as saying "They've signed me up for every advertising campaign and mailing list there is … These people are out of their minds. They're harassing me".
- In 1992 he served a fifty-day sentence for selling unregistered securities.[3]
- On August 7, 1995, he plead guilty to felony bank fraud in Ohio.[4]. He served three years probation for a felony charge of falsifying banking records.[5].
- On March 14, 1999, he plead guilty to misprision of felony in Michigan.[6]
- In early October 2005, a warrant was unsealed, showing the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided Alan Ralsky's home in September. In the raid, the FBI took computers, financial records, and even The Detroit News article cited earlier. They then raided his son-in-law's home. Ralsky's business was not legally shut down, but he was unable to operate following the raid. [7] No charges have been filed against him to date based on materials obtained in this raid.