About A Boy (2002)

SHAME THE BAD BOYS OF EMAIL SPAM

The majority of Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) or “spam” is sent by a relatively small group of dedicated professional spammers. The Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) indicates that 80% of all spam comes from just 200 known spam operations. This data is in line with research completed by Cipher Trust research scientists, which indicates that most spam originates from a relatively small group of tightly integrated spam networks. While were all very familiar with the spam messages we receive each day, it is interesting to take a look at who these spammers are – to put a “face” to the problem. Following are four of the most notorious and prolific spammers in the world.

Alan Ralsky
Mr. Ralsky is currently one of the most egregious spam senders in the world. His organization, based in Michigan since 1997, uses Chinese, European and US-based servers to host and send spam to millions of email boxes daily. But that’s not enough for Ralsky. Not only does he operate as a spammer, but he also provides hosting services to other spammers.

In 2002, Verizon sued Mr. Ralsky for causing their network to freeze twice. The lawsuit originally sought $37 million, but was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Ralsky is no longer allowed to send email over Verizon’s networks, but admits no wrongdoing in the case and has vowed to continue sending bulk email.

Mr. Ralsky was convicted in 1994 for falsifying documents to defraud two banks in Michigan and Ohio and was fined $74,000. In an unrelated case in 1992, Ralsky was sentenced to 50 days in jail and ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution for failing to deliver a contract involving unregistered securities.

While Mr. Ralsky sends millions of unsolicited email messages selling everything from diet pills to online gambling, he claims that his business is legitimate and that his emails are not spam. He also insists that he does not sell pornography. Were sure he’s an absolutely charming fellow.

Scott Richter
Scott Richter’s Denver-based company, OptinRealBig, is responsible for sending out billions of spam emails. He is one of the most outspoken and notorious spammers in business today. Whereas most spammers attempt to keep a low profile, often denying any involvement in spam, Richter seems to enjoy the spotlight. In fact, Richter even attempted to start up a “Spam King” clothing line before Hormel (the company responsible for bringing delicious canned Spam to dining rooms around the world) put an end to his trademark-infringing idea.

Richter and his partners were named in a lawsuit filed by the New York Attorney General and Microsoft. That suit, filed in 2003, sought millions of dollars in punitive damages, but was settled out of court in mid-2004 with a paltry fine of $50,000. For quite some time, Richter regarded his legal entanglements as excellent advertising for his company which, he claimed, gains value each time he is sued.

Recently he has changed his story somewhat. Faced with prolonged lawsuits led by Microsoft as well as various state and corporate entities, Richter has now declared bankruptcy. As his father (who is also his attorney) said, “It’s the legal fees that are battering the company. Opting is profitable but for these lawsuits.”

Andrew Westmoreland
An apparent accomplice of Scott Richter, Westmoreland’s Texas-based company, Internet Access Group Inc., sends millions of spam messages pushing everything from gas to online diploma mills to auto loans and mortgages. His business also operates under the names Brilliant Marketing, Aphrodite Marketing, Opiate Networks and Players Exchange Club.

Robert Holloway
Robert Holloway’s Oregon-based company, Newport Internet Marketing Corporation, has sent millions of spam emails and has been the subject of numerous complaints and lawsuits by class action groups and Microsoft.

Holloway’s spam messages often contain get-rich-quick schemes selling (what else?) spam software and “fresh” email addresses. Yes, that’s right folks; you too can send spam to 15 million recipients for just $295. At least that’s what the ad says, but would you want to give your credit card number to someone like this?

Slam the Door on Spam
This is just a small sampling of the questionable characters who insist on clogging your inbox with junk email. While these may be some of the most egregious offenders, there are plenty more waiting in the wings who would like nothing more than to be considered equally offensive. As these new spammers rise through the ranks, well keep you posted on who they are, and what kind of shady business they’re up to.

About the Author

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about a boy

Alison Krauss & Union Station - Live $8.36 Recorded on their Spring 2002 tour, this is Alison Krauss + Union Station's first live recording. It features galvanizing performances of songs from Now That I've Found You, New Favorite, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?Genre: BluegrassMedia Format: Compact DiskRating: Release Date: 5-NOV-2002...

Let Go $4.94 Audio CD...

Baby Einstein - Baby Van Gogh - World of Colors $18.49 The Baby Einstein Company's "video board books" were designed as music-focused developmental tools to stimulate babies' brains (prompted by research proving that exposure to classical melodies can improve verbal ability, spatial intelligence, creativity, and memory in youngsters). Now the company is expanding into other art forms, including color and art. The idea remains the same--taking bold...

Jungle Book [VHS] $8.77 Disney scrapped the songs and talking animals for its second version of Rudyard Kipling's classic novel, an old-fashioned boy's adventure that more resembles the classic Korda brothers' lush original than Disney's own animated musical. In this live-action version, Jason Scott Lee (the hunky star of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story) is the grown Mowgli, a boy raised by wolves and taught the ways of the ...

Oliver & Company [VHS] $2.94 Disney does Dickens in this animated version of Oliver Twist, in which a homeless New York City cat falls in with a bunch of mischievous dogs under the leadership of the appealing scoundrel Fagin. The roots of Disney's success with animation in the '90s begins with this clever, energetic, atmospheric movie, which succeeds in capturing the grim world Dickens conjured. Lyricist Howard Ashman (The Li...

About a Boy/American Dreamz [2 Discs] $10.29 About a Boy/American Dreamz [2 Discs]

Mad About the Boy $17.62 "Mad About the Boy features four highly erotic and emotionally charged tales of love and sex. Four vignettes focus on obsessional love and star nine of Europe's most beautiful guys. From the director of ""The Chain Reaction."""

About a Boy [WS] $7.11 London's most frequently eligible bachelor gets some lessons in growing up from a maladroit 12-year-old boy in this third big-screen adaptation of a Nick Hornby novel, directed and co-written by siblings Chris and Paul Weitz of American Pie fame. About a Boy concerns the parallel coming-of-age stories of the thirtysomething Will (Hugh Grant), a layabout "serial nice guy" living a posh, carefree lifestyle off his deceased father's fortune; and the preteen Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), a bright but awkward youth who's tired of his mom Fiona's (Toni Collette) depressed, boyfriend-less state. Their paths collide when Will, deciding that single mothers are the easiest romantic conquests on the dating scene, fabricates a two-year-old son and joins a group called S.P.A.T. (Single Parents Alone Together). Marcus is wise to Will's scheme, however, and through some incessant pestering and blackmail, he contrives for Will to date Fiona. Though Will doesn't hit it off immediately with either Marcus or his mother, he gradually begins to open up to the people around him -- so much so that he attracts the attention of another attractive single mom (Rachel Weisz). A U.S./U.K. co-production of Robert DeNiro's Tribeca Films and Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner's Working Title (the company responsible for the Grant-related Four Weddings and a Funeral and Bridget Jones's Diary), About a Boy was co-written by What's Eating Gilbert Grape creator Peter Hedges. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

2002 Season $24.03 'We now come to the part of the show called, `If it ain't broke, you're not trying.' So says Red Green, and he knows a thing or two about destruction. In this complete 12th season of the public television hit, the guys are forced to take IQ tests, Harold competes in a beauty pageant, and Ranger Gord gives helpful lessons about flying squirrels. Along the way, Red builds a water purification system, the lodge is transformed into a bed and breakfast, and Oscarr nominee Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves) stops in for a special visit.

About Schmidt $6.23 Jack Nicholson plays retiring insurance actuary Warren Schmidt in Alexander Payne's About Schmidt. Schmidt has settled into a dormant life. He has an unfulfilling marriage to Helen (June Squibb), and conspires to spend as much time away from her as possible. Schmidt's daughter Jeannie (Hope Davis) is engaged to Randall Hertzel (Dermot Mulroney), a man Schmidt believes is entirely unworthy of his daughter. When Helen unexpectedly dies, Warren is adrift until he discovers old love letters sent to his wife from his best friend. This inspires Warren to make a valiant effort to stop his daughter's wedding. His plans start to go awry when he meets Randall's extroverted mother, Roberta (Kathy Bates). About Schmidt was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival where many were surprised that Nicholson did not take home the Best Actor award. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

The Golden Boy $9.93 Director Rouben Mamoulian often claimed that he'd been inspired to make Golden Boy after reading a newspaper clipping about a recently deceased boxer. While Mamoulian may have genuinely believed that he was the true "auteur" of Golden Boy, he probably wouldn't have made the picture at all had not Clifford Odets started the ball rolling by writing the property for the stage in 1936. In his first starring role, William Holden plays Joe Bonaparte, a promising young boxer. While boxing promoter Tom Moody (Adolphe Menjou) and Menjou's mistress Lorna Moon (Barbara Stanwyck) urge Joe to pursue a ring career, Joe's Italian father (played with a surfeit of Chico Marx by 27-year-old Lee J. Cobb) wants his boy to become a famous violinist. Moody tells Lorna to romance the boy to get him into the ring. She does so, but regrets her callous actions when she genuinely falls in love with Joe. Having already broken his father's heart, Joe is further devastated when he accidentally kills a ring opponent. In the original play, both Joe and Lorna pay for their "sins" by dying in an auto accident. This would never do in Hollywood, so at fadeout time the chastened Joe returns to his forgiving father, with a tearful Lorna by his side. Clifford Odets' overrated purple prose seems to flow naturally from the actors, though it is obvious that William Holden had a long way to go. Still, Holden is pretty good in his first bonafide lead, a fact that he would ever after attribute to the patience and encouragement of his co-star Barbara Stanwyck; each year on the anniversary of Golden Boy's Hollywood premiere, Holden would send Stanwyck flowers as a sign of his eternal gratitude. While much of Golden Boy seems like a cliche-ridden museum piece when seen today, the film comes to life during the boxing sequences, helmed in exciting montage fashion by the always innovative Rouben Mamoulien. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Astro Boy $12.38 A young robot with incredible powers, super strength, and the purest spirit on the planet discovers the joys of being human while embarking on a worldwide journey to discover his true potential in this animated update of Osamu Tezuka's classic anime story. Astro Boy (Freddie Highmore) is a young robot from futuristic Metro City. Created by a brilliant scientist named Tenma (Nicolas Cage), and powered by pure positive "blue" energy that gives him such abilities as x-ray vision, inhuman speed, and flight, the wide-eyed android longs to find his true place in the world. He sets out on an epic journey that brings him face to face with an underworld army of robots and some of the strangest creatures ever to walk the Earth, and along the way learns to experience human feelings and emotions. Astro Boy's remarkable mission of discovery is suddenly cut short, however, when he learns that his friends and family back in Metro City are in grave danger. As Astro Boy prepares to face off against his greatest adversary in order to save everything he cares most about, he realizes that only through victory will he finally discover what it takes to be a hero. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The Mudge Boy $18.23 Writer/director Michael Burke makes his feature-length debut with the coming-of-age drama The Mudge Boy. Known as a weird kid, Duncan Mudge (Emile Hirsch) is a naive 14-year-old farm boy with an aging father, Edgar (Richard Jenkins), and very little social life. When Duncan's mother suddenly dies, he develops a strange fascination with her clothes, speaks in her voice, and spends his time with his pet chicken. His father and the other people in the town just don't understand his behavior, while the other kids make fun of him. A drunken group of older boys call him names, but they eventually allow him to hang out with them if he provides beer money. Duncan admires one of the boys, Perry (Tom Guiry), who reveals some hidden truths about himself. As the relationship between the two deepens, it begins to take on darker, more ominous shadings. The Mudge Boy premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Dirt Boy $14.91 A kind of riff on The Blair Witch Project, Dirt Boy is focused on the title of a best-selling novel named "Dirt Boy" that has reigned popular in the small Massachusetts town of Atwater Commons -- named, not coincidentally, after the book's author, Atwater Bridges (Arthur J. Walsh). An ex-junkie New York migrant named Matty (Jacob Lee Hedman), who intends to study forensic science, signs up for a local workshop on the subject, presided over by the eerie Dr. Klugard (Luca Bercovici). After the doctor drops information about the book's content, Matty starts to retrace the steps of the book's murders with the help of an audio book of Dirt Boy, and before he knows it, ends up unearthing the corpses of supposedly fictional characters. Matty discovers a young woman (Michelle Guthrie) who has seemingly survived an attack by the mysterious author, and he attempts to solve the mystery of his discoveries. The film is narrated by Glen Victor Boyle and also features Lonnie Framer, Fran Devasto, and Eddie McCabe. ~ Jason Clark, Rovi

Highlights of the 2002 Masters Tournament $10.38 This documentary about the 2002 Masters Tournament contains images not seen on the television broadcast of the event. In addition to footage of Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson, and all of the other greats of the era, the DVD release of this film contains clips from press conferences and a fly-over view of historic Augusta National golf course. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi