It's dead, Jim. Several reporters and spam fighters have checked on the Alan Ralsky story and told me it's false. The FBI's Detroit field office told one journalist that the Spam King was not arrested or held, is not in custody, and has not been indicted.

I wasn't hoaxing (pretty sure my source wasn't either), just running with a seemingly solid rumor. (Who hoaxes on a Friday?) Still looking into why I was told this story in the first place, and contacting my source. Will report back on whether someone in the spam world wanted to make everyone else duck, or whether a hacker got bored of running IE exploits and tipped another hacker with a faked caller ID. (Or if it's a giant conspiracy involving the true locations of Jimmy Hoffa's body and Britney Spears' sense of dignity).