I hate spam! Really I do. But some of these spam sting operations - I have to be honest - seem funny to me. For instance, the case of the Rizler, a.k.a. Christopher Smith. He'd been operating illegal prescription drug sites in the Dominican Republic since a federal judge shut down Burnsville Internet and Xpress Pharmacy Direct. Authorities had seized his assets (along the lines of $4.2 million) and shut down his 85-employee company in May. He escaped to the D.R. with a falsified passport and help from both his wife and his girlfriend (yeah, it does get better and better!).

Federal documents accuse the Rizler of setting up new spam operations in the Dominican Republic and collecting as much as $18 million. Then he made his fatal error: he tried to come home (to his girlfriend, I presume). Federal agents arrested him in a "midnight operation" as soon as he stepped off the plane in Minneapolis.

Here's why it's funny: in a world where most of our TV and movie villians are evil masterminds with guns and their own airplanes, the spam "supremos," if that's the name we're using now, attack with henchmen like "Lapp H. Appearance" and "qjl 1000s a day." Their most insidious weapons are adware and yucky .jpg files. It's a little funny, right?