Russian spammer not really dead (am I supposed to be glad?)

October 13th, 2007 Last week, many internet news sites reported that famed Russian spammer, Alexey Tolstokozhev had been found murdered in his house located near Moscow. The cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the head. Word was that the Russian mob was behind the hit.

The original source of this information was apparently a blog entry.

It was on the internet, so it must be true - right? Even better, it was on a blog. From my understanding, bloggers have a strict code of conduct when it comes to journalistic integrity.

As you might have guessed from my poor attempt at sarcasm, it turns out the whole thing was a hoax, and the spammer is apparently alive and well.

The believability of the story was heightened considering the Russian mob actually did kill a spammer a short while ago. Hmm, that would be one way to stop spam mail - although I suspect it's technically illegal.

Alexey (I feel I've dealt with enough of his spam - that I can just call him "Al") - has over the years been behind some of the very finest spam - kind purporting to enhance a man's abilities in the sack with the ladies.

While Alexey is based in Russia, most spammers employ computers located around the planet to disseminate their messages. This maximize the delivery rate of the email, as many email security tools are programmed to block email from certain problematic regions.

It seems Al is mostly interested in sending English-language spam, so he's probably not behind my recent burst of Russian-language spam.

Back