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Prolific spammer pleads guilty

One of the world's most prolific spam email senders has pleaded guilty to defrauding people in a US court.

Alan Ralsky was accused of artificially manipulating Chinese stock prices on US exchanges using spam email – a scam which earned the cybercriminal $3 million (£1.8 million) in the summer of 2005.

On Monday, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud and money laundering in Detroit's Federal Court.

Ralsky faces up to three-and-a-half years in prison following the guilty plea.

US attorney Terrence Berg said that at one time Ralsky was the most notorious illegal spammer on the internet.

Meanwhile, Internet security expert Brian Krebs recently claimed that the number of cybrecriminal networks on the internet is growing, with gangs selling franchises and paying people to infect computers.

He said: "Experts say one of the longest-running and most successful of these pay-per-install operations is an organisation called InstallsCash, which pays distributors to spread a variety of invasive programs."

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