Spam Kings: The Real Story behind the High-Rolling Hucksters Pushing Porn, Pills, and %*@)# Enlargements

McWilliams, Brian S.

ISBN 10: 0596007329 / ISBN 13: 9780596007324

Published by O'Reilly Media, US, 2004

About this Item

More than sixty percent of today's email traffic is spam, according to emai l filtering firm Brightmail. This year alone, five trillion spam messages w ill 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 i nvestigative journalist Brian S. McWilliams delivers a compelling account o f the cat-and-mouse game played by spam entrepreneurs in search of easy for tunes and those who are trying to stop them. Spam Kings chronicles the evolution of Davis Wolfgang Hawke, a notorious ne o-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 tar get of lawsuits from AOL and others. Spam Kings also tells the parallel story of Susan Gunn, a computer novice i n California who is reluctantly drawn into the spam wars and eventually joi ns 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 f ight against spammers as well as the cast of quirky characters who comprise Hawke's business associates. The book sheds light on the technical sleight-o.

Seller Inventory # RWARE0000038359

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Spam Kings: The Real Story behind the High-Rolling Hucksters Pushing Porn, Pills, and %*@)# Enlargements
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, US
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0596007329
• ISBN 13: 9780596007324
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good/Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Looks at a variety of spam entrepreneurs and how anti-spam activists are trying to stop their activities.

About the Author

Brian McWilliams has been reporting on business and technology issues for over twenty years. His articles have appeared in online publications such as Wired.com and Salon.com as well as in magazines including PC World, Computerworld, InformationWeek, CFO, Across the Board, and Inc. McWilliams gained international attention in 2002 when he wrote about the contents of Saddam Hussein's email inbox.