Spam Kings

"More than sixty percent of today's email traffic is spam. In 2004 alone, five trillion spam messages clogged Internet users' in-boxes, costing society an estimated $10 billion in filtering software and lost productivity." "This expose explores the shadowy world of the people responsible for today's junk-email epidemic. Investigative journalist Brian McWilliams delivers a fascinating account of the cat-and-mouse game played by spam entrepreneurs in search of easy fortunes and anti-spam activists." "McWilliams chronicles the activities of several spam kings, including Davis Wolfgang Hawke, a notorious Jewish-born neo-Nazi leader. The book traces this 20-year-old neophyte's rise in the trade, where he became 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 story of anti-spam cyber-vigilantes like Susan Gunn, a computer novice in California, whose outrage led her to join a group of anti-spam activists. Her volunteer sleuthing put her on a collision course with Hawke and other spammers, who sought revenge on their pursuers." "The book sheds light on the technical sleight-of-hand and sleazy business practices that spammers use - forged headers, open relays, harvesting tools, and bulletproof hosting - and warns of the ever-inventive spammers' development of new types of spam."--Jacket.