CMS - InPrint - Detroit News - Junk e-mail foes target spam king



Sunday, August 4, 2002

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John T. Greilick / The Detroit News

Alan Ralsky calls himself a commercial e-mailer, not a spammer. He says he maintains files with 87 million e-mail addresses of computer users who ask to be removed from his blanket solicitations.

Junk e-mail foes target spam king
W. Bloomfield man, a major sender of bulk messages, lands in center of free-speech battle

By Joel Kurth / The Detroit News

Fighting e-intrusions
   Here are ways to curtail unsolicited commercial e-mail:
Delete messages promptly.
Ignore offers to be removed from mailing lists. Doing so verifies the address, making it more valuable for resale to other solicitors.
Establish e-mail accounts with Internet service providers that have specific anti-spam policies. Take advantage of options that let users block certain types of messages.
Use e-mail filters to block specific senders.
Remove yourself from unprotected member directories where you've posted messages.
Business users should close open or backup ports that allow spammers access into your system.
Install anti-spam software designed to block messages containing words such as "free," "sweepstakes" or "mortgage." Take advantage of options that let users filter out adult-content e-mail.
   Source: Computer Mail Services Inc., Detroit News research

Spam laws at a glance
   Laws limiting spam have done little to slow the flow of junk e-mail. Examples show how laws vary by state:
Neither Michigan nor the federal government has passed laws to crack down on spam.
Virginia has the toughest law, letting Internet service providers ask courts for $10 for every piece of unsolicited e-mail passing through their networks.
California, Idaho, Missouri, Nevada and Tennessee require spammers to include instructions on how to opt out of future mailings and require them to honor the requests.
Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Virginia prohibit bulk e-mailers from using false routing information to send spam.
Pennsylvania and Kansas require spam with adult material to be labeled that way.
   Source: The Internet Law Group (http://www.spamlaws.com/

Free-speech or free ride?
West Bloomfield Township businessman Alan M. Ralsky has become one of the world's largest providers of Internet spam. Are his e-mail messages free-speech or a free ride on the backs of Internet service providers and users?
They're free speech. Leave him alone.
Spammers are parasites. Stop him.

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   WEST BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP -- The e-mails flow by the millions -- offers for cut-rate insurance, prescription drugs, vacation giveaways and more -- en route to unsuspecting computers from Detroit to Djakarta.
   Known as spam or unsolicited commercial e-mail, many these days originate from a well-kept colonial in a West Bloomfield Township subdivision. Inside, owner Alan M. Ralsky has become one of the world's largest providers of the much-hated solicitations.
   Ralsky claims he is trying to make an honest living in an industry riddled with cons, but he is one of the most despised men in some corners of the Internet. On Web chat rooms, the 57-year-old is described as "scum," "sleaze," "vermin" and an "Internet criminal." Death threats aren't uncommon. Many Internet providers won't allow Ralsky to send e-mail on their systems.
   "I'm not trying to become the poster boy (of spam). But, honest to God, some people think I'm the only one making money off this," he said.
   Ralsky is a central figure in the international battle over spam, one that pits cleaning up cyberspace of unwanted e-mail against arguments that doing so trods on free-speech rights. A multimillion dollar lawsuit against him is closely watched by the industry because it highlights the legal and practical difficulties of curbing the messages that promise everything from porn to discount software, as well as provide an inexpensive forum for companies to sell their wares.
   Not only a top frustration among users, spam is gobbling up precious space on the Internet and costing businesses and consumers worldwide $9.6 billion a year in lost productivity and upgrades to fight it, according to a 2001 European Union study.
   The European Union recently passed laws banning unsolicited junk e-mail, but the United States has yet to follow suit. Instead, Internet providers such as Verizon and Comcast are suing to shut down spammers, filing at least 25 cases in the last five years, said Jon Praed, a lawyer with the Arlington, Va.-based Internet Law Group.
   Verizon Internet Services has targeted Ralsky, who has fought his way back from bankruptcy, a felony conviction involving fraud and the loss of his insurance licenses in Michigan and Illinois. The company has sued Ralsky and associates at his business, Additional Benefits LCC, claiming they sent enough spam in one day in 2000 to fill all the memory of about 20 personal computers. The suit does not specify total damages, but they could eclipse $37 million based on the amount of e-mail the company claims Ralsky sent.
   "This was the largest e-mail attack in our history," said Thomas M. Dailey, general counsel of the Reston, Va.-based provider. "It's clear Mr. Ralsky is a major player in this area. What he did to us was tantamount to an attack."
   Ralsky denies the accusation. The case goes to trial Sept. 23 in the U.S. District Court's eastern Virginia district.
   "They make me out to be the biggest villain there is, but I want to take this to trial," said Ralsky, who wouldn't divulge his annual earnings. "I don't do porn. I don't camouflage my e-mails. If you don't want to receive them, I won't send any more."
   Despite efforts in the courts to fight spam, bulk e-mailers are often one step ahead of Internet providers and can cover their tracks faster than corporations can catch them.
   The National Spam Mail Abuse Association has spent more than a year trying to get to the bottom of Ralsky's organization, which he said consists of about nine subcontractors.
   "The deeper we get, the more confused we are," said Greg Blackwell, an Omaha, Neb.-based computer network manager who founded the anti-spam group. "He's like a cactus. Once he takes root, you can never stop him from growing."

Battle over Internet
   Ralsky's lawyer, Robert S. Harrison of Bloomfield Hills, said the Verizon suit -- and actions by the anti-spam "Gestapo" -- are the first volleys in a fight that ultimately could decide who controls the Internet.
   Harrison claims Ralsky is taking advantage of the same freedoms the Internet provides all users and counters that Verizon is trying to restrict his free-speech rights. Verizon sued in Virginia because the state has one of the toughest laws against bulk e-mail in the nation.
   Michigan has no law against spam.
   "How is sending commercial e-mail any worse than the annoying phone calls you get during dinner or letters from Publishers Clearing House saying you've won millions of dollars from Ed McMahon?" Harrison said.
   Even spam critics such as Grosse Pointe Farms attorney Matthew R. Halpin acknowledge the case poses a tough question for a medium built on free exchange: Why is it OK for users to e-mail vacation photos to 100 friends, but illegal for spammers to send thousands of pitches?
   "I hate spam. It's horrible, but what's the remedy?" asked Halpin, who specializes in Internet issues and operates the Web sites CyberLaw USA and Michigan Cyber Court. "Do we say you can't make someone an offer for services? You're treading on thin ice with the First Amendment."
   Praed and Internet service providers call such arguments ridiculous, saying that sending spam is tantamount to stealing by using others' property for personal gain.
   "No one has the right to free speech by using a megaphone that's owned by someone else," said Praed, who is working on the Ralsky case and has become one of the top anti-spam attorneys in the nation.

Lawsuit ramifications
   Spam is tough to stop. Twenty-nine states have passed or considered laws to limit bulk e-mails, which account for 20 percent to 50 percent of all Internet traffic. Attacks -- single launches of thousands of solicitations -- jumped to 4.8 million in June from 675,000 in January 2001, according to Brightmail, a San Francisco company that fights spam.
   "This type of pernicious activity is only getting worse," said Lih-Tah Wong, president of Computer Mail Strategies, a Southfield company that sells anti-spam software.
   "It's popular because it's so cheap," Wong said. "There's no postage to lick. There's no ads to print and they get the message across. So 99.9 percent of recipients delete it, but there's that 0.01 percent that look at it and do something with it. That one hit more than pays for itself."
   Ralsky agreed.
   "I put people on the same playing field as Fortune 500 companies for a fraction of the cost," he said. "This is all about who can make money. These (anti-spammers) feel we've infringed on their personal space. They want to own the Internet."


Next Part: How bulk e-mail works | Verizon vs. Ralsky