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By Brian McWilliams
October 2004
Pages: 368
ISBN 10: 0-596-00732-9 |
ISBN 13: 9780596007324
The mounting onslaught of email pitches for porn, pills, and penis enlargement has some techno-pundits declaring that spam is on the verge of destroying the Internet. In Spam Kings, author and veteran investigative journalist Brian S. McWilliams delivers a compelling account of the cat-and-mouse game played by spam entrepreneurs (including the notorious Davis Wolfgang Hawke, "Dr. Fatburn," and Scott Richter) in search of easy fortunes and the cyber-vigilantes who are trying to stop them.
Full Description
More than sixty percent of today's email traffic is spam, according to email filtering firm Brightmail. This year alone, five trillion spam messages will clog Internet users in-boxes, costing society an estimated $10-billion in lost productivity, filtering software, and other expenses.
Spam Kings: The Real Story behind the High-Rolling Hucksters Pushing Porn, Pills, and %*@)# Enlargements is the first book to expose the shadowy world of the people responsible for the junk email problem. Author and veteran investigative journalist Brian S. McWilliams delivers a compelling account of the cat-and-mouse game played by spam entrepreneurs in search of easy fortunes and those who are trying to stop them.
Spam Kings chronicles the evolution of Davis Wolfgang Hawke, a notorious neo-Nazi leader (Jewish-born) who got into junk email in 1999. Using Hawke as a case study, Spam Kings traces the twenty-year-old neophyte's rise in the spam trade to his emergence as a major player in the lucrative penis pill market--a business that would eventually make him a millionaire and the target of lawsuits from AOL and others.
Spam Kings also tells the parallel story of Susan Gunn, a computer novice in California who is reluctantly drawn into the spam wars and eventually joins a group of anti-spam activists. Her volunteer sleuth work puts her on a collision course with Hawke and other spammers, who try to wreak revenge on the antis. You'll also meet other cyber-vigilantes who have taken up the fight against spammers as well as the cast of quirky characters who comprise Hawke's business associates.
The book sheds light on the technical sleight-of-hand--forged headers, open relays, harvesting tools, and bulletproof hosting--and other sleazy business practices that spammers use; the work of top anti-spam attorneys; the surprising new partnership developing between spammers and computer hackers; and the rise of a new breed of computer viruses designed to turn the PCs of innocent bystanders into secret spam factories.
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"A fascinating insider look at an odd assortment of individuals who unscrupulously market phoney schemes, bogus investments, fake medications, and counterfeit goods to millions of unsuspecting computer users via unsolicited e-mail, or spam. These are their stories, and those of anti-spammers who are actively hunting them down and turning them over to the authorities."
-- Michael Kleper, The Kleper Report on Digital Publishing
"This is about the personal lives, and the trials and tribulations of spammers and spam fighters. A more motley crew of miscreants and their enemies would be hard to imagine... What is really amazing is just how readable this book is. McWilliams has the narrative talent of a novelist, and the investigative skills of a top drawer journalist. I found this bizarre story of greed and human depravity in cyberspace as 'unputdownable' as a best-selling true crime tale--which it is. This also serves as a sort of history of outline spam, chronicling the lives and times of those involved while reporting on the various measures taken by email providers and governments to combat the flood of unsolicited bulk emails."
--Dennis Littrell, Amazon.com review, June 2005
"It is an axiom in security to know your enemy. Before taking on spammers, Spam Kings is a good place to turn for a look at some of the people responsible for the spam epidemic. The book provides the details, often comical, of the seemingly never-ending cat-and-mouse games played by spammers and members of the antispam cabal dedicated to stopping them. It's a good preview on what a company is getting into when it decides to take on spam."
--Ben Rothke, SecurityManagement.com, April 2005
"McWilliams is an experienced author, and his breadth of understanding helps keep the prose informed and clear while skillfully managing to avoid becoming too technical, no mean feat given that the channels through which spammers and anti-spammers work are often obscure and unfamiliar...an enjoyable read, and warmly recommended to anyone looking for something fun but relevant to take with them on their next vacation."
--Dr. Neale Monks, Applelust.com, March 2005
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"A fascinating insider look at an odd assortment of individuals who unscrupulously market phoney schemes, bogus investments, fake medications, and counterfeit goods to millions of unsuspecting computer users via unsolicited e-mail, or spam."
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