The Internet`s Most Wanted Spammers - Have You Seen This Man?
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The Spamhaus Project was founded by Steve Linford in 1998 to track down the Internet's most notorious spammers, spam gangs, and spam services. They also offer protection against spam and work with law enforcement to bring these people to justice. As a handy reference tool, they keep an updated list of the 10 worst spam countries, networks, and spammers. But in keeping with our discussion of the most dangerous individuals, we're going to focus on the list of spammers.
Vincent Chan is the most dangerous individual on the list and second most dangerous overall, but he doesn't work alone. Together with a small group of Chinese spammers, possibly including his brother, they send massive volumes of spam on compromised machines. It's mostly pharmacy-related spam, but they have also done watches, toner and ink cartridges, and mortgages. He was the first to abuse Geocities re-directers and is responsible for the majority of Geocities spam in recent years.
Next on the list is Alex Blood, aka Alexander Mosh, aka AlekseyB, aka Alex Polyakov. Alex Polyakov is actually the name of the Soviet spy character in John LeCarre's novel, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. He runs a child-porn campaign that spams through hijacked, virus-infected computer botnets. His company, Pilot Holding, was linked to the "Regpay" child-porn ring that was raided by federal authorities in Florida.
Nikhil Kumar Pragji is responsible for the Dark Mailer spamware, which is a bulk email sending program that relies on zombie computers. It is a hub for many spam operations, including Robert Soloway's. Pragji operates out of Australia.
Ruslan Ibragimov is a Russian spammer who developed the Sobig mass mailing worm. He runs one of the largest spamming operations in the world.
Leo Kuvayev is a Russian/American spammer who has been linked with just about every spammer on the list. He sends child and animal porn spam, porn payment collection spam, pirated software spam, pharma/pills spam, and others. Has has an enormous number of domains and has connections to the biggest botnet masters.
There are more spammers on the list, including some well-known spam gangs, but you'll have to read it to see for yourself. I felt a summary of the most prolific and elusive spammers would be more than enough show the scope of the situation. At the very least, I hope I've awakened you to your own security liabilities.
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