Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Disgruntled Fan Arrested, Indicted For Spam Attacks

Posted by timothy on from the malice-on-display dept.

An anonymous reader submits: "A *very* interesting precedent here might get set here. A California man has been arrested by the FBI for sending spam spoofing the From: email address of several Philadelphia-area newspaper editors and writers. The charges relate to the damage caused by having the bounces sent back to the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, with a total of more than 160,000 bounced emails. Maximum penalties: 471 years in federal prison, $117 million in fines." And not just arrested, either -- Reader red_dragon points to the indictment (PDF linked from this U.S. Attorney's Office release).

5 of 363 comments (clear)

  1. well... by Moebius+Loop · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Sending spam is bad.

    That being said, does it seem a little unfair that the indictment charges him with "hacking", when in fact he just spoofed his email address?

    "Oh, beautiful for spacious skies...."

    gah.

    --
    have you been seen on slash?
  2. My share? by Fletch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    $117mil/160k mails = $731.25 per email.

    Now, I've had spammers use my address as a from: address a couple of times, resulting in a couple of thousand bounces in my inbox.

    When should I expect my check for $1,462,500 to arrive?

  3. Justice? by Kaa · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Yes, VERY interesting...

    Let's look at California penal code.

    How about throwing acid in someone's face?
    244. Any person who willfully and maliciously places or throws, or causes to be placed or thrown, upon the person of another, any
    vitriol, corrosive acid, flammable substance, or caustic chemical of any nature, with the intent to injure the flesh or disfigure the body of that person, is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three or four years.

    OK, let's see, what if I attack someone with a knife?
    245. (a) (1) Any person who commits an assault upon the person of another with a deadly weapon or instrument other than a firearm or by any means of force likely to produce great bodily injury shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years

    Hell, given that Arnie is now governator of California what happens if I start spraying machinegun fire around?
    (3) Any person who commits an assault upon the person of another with a machinegun, as defined in Section 12200, or an assault weapon, as defined in Section 12276 or 12276.1, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for 4, 8, or 12 years.

    So, four years in jail for permanently disfiguring someone, four years for cutting somebody up with a knife, twelve for machinegunning people and... 471 years for spoofing a From: email header.

    Ah, yes, justice...
    --

    Kaa
    Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
  4. No wonder ID theft is so popular these days by Dav3K · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How nice of the US Attorney's Office to publish the defendant's FULL NAME, CURRENT ADDRESS and DATE OF BIRTH prominently on the web, for all to see.(See linked PDF in topic) Even better, this guy is going to be out of the house for a while, so it should be no problem to pick up his mail.

    I swear, the only thing protecting this guy's ID now is his new-found criminal record.

  5. All the people who think the penalty is too high by Zakabog · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Don't forget that's the MAXIMUM penalty. For every bounced e-mail there is a certain penalty, they add up and form a maximum penalty. A judge will set a MUCH MUCH lower penalty based on the crime and the damage done. The only reason the penalty was so high is because everything is automated, it's a lot easier for a computer to commit a crime 160,000 times.

    If you made a script that raped or murdered 160,000 people your maximum penalty would be quite high too. I think it's about 4 million years in prison for 160,000 second degree murder charges. And I think the minimum sentence for 160,000 rape charges would be a bit under 3 million years. It wasn't that the penalty for this persons crimes should be over 400 years in prison, it's just that the maximum penalties add up to that and the fines also just happen to add up to over 100 million.