FBI shuts down 'number one spammer'

A man alleged to be one of the world's worst spammers has been put out of business by the FBI, according to reports.

Documents unsealed earlier this month show that Alan Ralsky, a US citizen based in Michigan, had his operations effectively shut down by the FBI when agents raided his home and the home of his son-in-law in September.

During the raids, the Feds seized documents, disks and hardware belonging to Ralsky.

Ralsky currently appears as the world's most prolific spammer on the Spamhaus Project's Rokso (register of known spam operations) list and is thought to have the capacity to send up to a billion emails per day.

He has already been targeted in anti-spam efforts. US telco Verizon sued Ralsky and his company Additional Benefits, claiming he was sending vast amounts of spam over Verizon's network.

Ralsky and Verizon reached a settlement in 2002, with Ralsky agreeing to send no spam over Verizon's network or to its subscribers.

However, according to Spamhaus, Ralsky has continued his unsolicited bulk email pursuits and now spams using hijacked proxies and virus infected PCs.