On Tuesday, Ed White reported with the Associated Press that "the world's most prolific senders of spam e-mail" has come clean and plead guilty to outstanding spam e-mail crimes he committed back in 2005.
According to his charges, Alan Ralsky, 64, of West Bloomfield, Michigan, defrauded numerous people by manipulating Chinese stock prices- and raked in a cool $3 million.
The "elaborate spam e-mail system" apparently inflated Chinese stocks on U.S. exchanges. On Monday, White pleaded guilty to "conspiracy, fraud and money laundering" in the Detroit federal court.
According to U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg, Ralsky was once the most notorious illegal spammer on the... planet.
Apparently, that title and $3 million in scams doesn't amount to a huge sentence - Ralsky faces, at most, three and a half years in prison, in accordance with his plea agreement.
It's hard to spot a sophisticated spammer before he makes his attack, but check out my video on Internet Security 101 on ways you can stay safe in other online situations: