Massachusetts spam gang
by Nikola Strahija on May 12, 2005
Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly shut down a number of websites allegedly operated by a sophisticated ring of Boston area spammers.
Leo Kuvayev, listed in Spamhaus register of the world’s 200 worst spammers, and six other people - members of what's now claimed to be one of the world's largest spam gangs - are accused of sending the messages in violation of consumer protection laws.
Vladislav Khokholkov, Anna Orlova, Pavel Tkachuk, Michelle Marco, Dennis Nartikoev, Pavel Yashin and two companies: 2K Services and Ecash Pay are named in the suit along with Kuvayev.
Although the exact number of emails sent by the gang is yet to be descovered, a spam trap poverd by Microsoft intercepted 45,000 spam messages sent in three weeks. Massachusetts' investigation, together with data from Microsoft, found that Kuvayev and the defendants regularly shifted spamed domain names and websites to different internet addresses.
By following the domain names through several of these shifts, uncovering more domain names linked to identical websites, and obtaining registration information from website hosting companies, investigators were able to determine the identity of Kuvayev and others and link them to websites selling counterfeit prescription drugs, pirated software, mortgage loan offers, counterfeit Rolex watches, and pornography. The operations have been tracked to Russia and other countries overseas, with domain names registered in Monaco, Australia and France, and computer servers located in China, Korea, Brazil and Taiwan.
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