SPAM Kings
Book Review

By Dale Farris, Vice President Golden Triangle PC Club November 2004 More than sixty percent of today's email traffic is spam, according to email filtering firm Brightmail. This year alone (2004), five trillion spam messages will 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 investigative journalist Brian S. McWilliams delivers a compelling account of the cat-and-mouse game played by spam entrepreneurs in search of easy fortunes and those who are trying to stop them. Spam Kings chronicles the evolution of Davis Wolfgang Hawke, a notorious neo-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 target of lawsuits from AOL and others. Spam Kings also tells the parallel story of Susan Gunn, a computer novice in California who is reluctantly drawn into the spam wars and eventually joins 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 fight against spammers as well as the cast of quirky characters who comprise Hawke's business associates. The book sheds light on the technical sleight-of-hand - -forged headers, open relays, harvesting tools, and bulletproof hosting - -and other sleazy business practices that spammers use; the work of top anti-spam attorneys; the surprising new partnership developing between spammers and computer hackers; and the rise of a new breed of computer viruses designed to turn the PCs of innocent bystanders into secret spam factories. Purpose of the Book Author McWilliams does a marvelous job of telling the story of how junk email has evolved to the point of being such a nagging problem for most all computer owners, and this story is an important contribution to the growing literature on computer and information technology history. In addition, he updates readers on the status of the main spammers, as of 2004, providing a glimmer of hope that international anti-spam efforts may one day result in the end to this obnoxious annoyance. All IT professionals and anyone with a computer will find the book to be a delightful read, and will be intrigued by the tale that required extensive digging by this hard working author. Table of Contents The book has eleven (11) chapters, an epilogue, a glossary, notes, acknowledgments, and an index. Book Contents 368 pages; 39 glossy b&w photos; glossary; notes; index; Author Brian McWilliams About the Author Brian McWilliams is a veteran investigative journalist who has covered business and technology for web magazines such as Wired News and Salon, as well as the Washington Post, PC World, Computerworld, and Inc. The author of hundreds of articles about spam, Internet security, and online consumer protection, Mr. McWilliams gained international attention in 2002 when he wrote about the contents of Saddam Hussein's email inbox for Wired News. He has appeared on NBC Nightly News, Fox News, BBC Radio, NPR's Here and Now, and PRI's Marketplace programs. ISBN October 2004 - 1st Edition 0-596-00732-9 List Price $22.95 $33.95 CAN Publisher Contact Marsee Henon marsee@oreilly.com O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 1005 Gravenstein Highway North Sebastopol, California 95472 707-827-7000 707-827-7114 800-998-9938 FAX 707-829-0104 www.oreilly.com