Free registration may be required.

1. MEET THE SPAMMER

”Click here,” says my spamming mentor. Hovering over my chair, he points to the computer screen. ”Now click on that file of e-mail addresses there.” I have been invited by a master for an education in spamming, the practice of blasting millions of unsolicited e-mail messages into the Internet in order to advertise everything from loans with easy terms to women of easy virtue.

”Let’s go online and download some software,” says my guide. His name is Richard Colbert. On the Rokso, or Register of Known Spam Operations (a kind of Most Wanted List for the Internet posted on an antispam Web site called spamhaus.org), Colbert is described plainly: ”Nonstop scam spammer, kicked off so many hosts and I.S.P.s” — or Internet service providers — ”it’s hard to count.”