Just ten people account for 80 per cent of the world's spam according to anti-spam organisation Spamhaus. Half of the perpetrators hail from Eastern Europe.
Top of the pile, according to Spamhaus, is Ukrainian Alex Polyakov (aka Alex Blood/Alexander Mosh/AlekseyB). Polyakov is alleged to work with a Russian spam gang called Pavka/Artofit that controls a large amount of botnets that churn out spam.
Second on the list of shame is Russian Leo Kuvayev (aka BadCow). Kuvayev is alleged to be "involved in pirated software spam, child and animal porn spam, porn payment collection, pharma/pills and phishing, to name a few."
According to Spamhaus, the Russian is "noted for enormous numbers of domains, often rotating every three hours in the spam to avoid URIBL filters."
Number three and one of only two Americans to make the top ten is Michael Lindsay of iMedia Networks. Lindsay is thought to run a spam hosting service "at high premiums and promise to keep the 'fools at the networks' off the spammer's backs by acting as a go-between."
Spamhaus also list the top ten worst counties for spam. The U.S. tops the poll with China, Japan and Russia following.
