Word on the street has it that Alan Ralsky, the so-called Spam King, has been taken into custody by the Department of Justice (DOJ), where they are attempting to put the squeeze on him to have him give up all his spammer cronies and their spamming networks.
Nick Douglas over at ValleyWag has published what he says are legitimate Internet messenger chats with folks in the hacker and spam community, who were naturally among the first to know when Ralsky got pinched.
Douglas quotes one of his sources as saying “Alan Ralsky is currently being held by the feds and his file is sealed for the next 72hrs by the DOJ. We are concerned that he is going to narq out the entire network since they have enough on him to send him to jail. This means hackers, spammers, anyone who has worked in spam legally or illegally for the last 5 years at least. The DOJ wants to do a dragnet, they have the top dog, but they want the whole system as well.”
According to the word, getting Ralsky to “narq out the entire network” was exactly the DOJ’s plan, and they were none too pleased to have it start to crumble as word of his detention got out.
In a follow-up published later in the day, Douglas’ connection shares a conversation with a fellow hacker, in which the compatriot explains that the DOJ is ticked off that the story has already broken, and “spammers are shutting their sh*t down and ralsky has already plead down and they cant get arrests from the info.”
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Paul Roberts over at InfoWorld quotes another unnamed source from the same circles as saying that “we are worried that he will strike a deal, out the network for a reduced sentence/immunity.”
By all accounts, there is a sealed indictment in the DOJ’s possession, which is due to be unsealed in 72 hours. And then, as they say, we shall see what we shall see. So stay tuned.
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