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'Operation Cyber Sweep' Nets 125 Arrests
unassimilatible writes "Attorney General John Ashcroft said Thursday that law-enforcement agents had arrested 125 suspects in a crackdown on Internet crimes ranging from hacking and software piracy to credit card fraud and selling stolen goods over the Internet, according to Wired. The investigation, begun Oct. 1 and dubbed Operation Cyber Sweep, involved police from Ghana to Southern California and uncovered 125,000 victims who had lost more than $100 million. Seventy indictments to date have led to arrests or convictions of 125 people, with more expected as the probe continues. The cases range from a Virginia woman who sent fake e-mails to America Online customers asking them to update their credit card numbers to a disgruntled Philadelphia Phillies fan who hacked into computers nationwide and launched spam e-mails criticizing the baseball team. 'The information superhighway should be a conduit for communication, information and commerce, not an expressway for crime,' Ashcroft said."
Are we talking about real software pirates (ones that actually sell their illgotten goods on the street and prevent legimate profits) or pimply-faced teenagers proud of having two hundred copies of Photoshop on their hard drive? IMHO, saying that actual money was lost in the latter case is absurd.
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
let's make some maths together.
- There have been roughly 125 000 people scammed by the 125 arrested scammers. If we just stick to the hypothesis that the average scam lasts for one year (if anyone has more information about that, welcome), it makes a difference of 47 000 (125 000 - 4*3*58000) between the scammed people and the number of complaints.
- Given that the overall loss is estimated to 100 million US, and making a real nice average calculation, we can just imagine that 37,6 million (47 000/125 000*100 million) dollars have not been claimed.
Where will that money go ?Regards,
jdif
Let's overcome our weakness.
How were they tracked down? Was it with previously available tools, or were formerly impossible acts made possible under the PATRIOT act? Good old detective sluething, or warrant-less email tracking? How will they be charged? With charges that fit the crime, ot as cyber-terrorists? Because while hacking computers is a real concern, sending out annoying messages about baseball shouldn't be at the top of Ashcroft's list.
I'm not accusing Ashcroft of anything. Yet. But I am VERY VERY suspicious of anything that he touches, or anything fro his department. This is hopefully a step in the right direction. People who con others out of their credit cards or hijacks other computers should be prosecuted. But I think the public needs to closely examine what exactly is going on behind the scenes.
-Trillian
When I lived in Missouri I once had a problem with being slammed by various telephone companies (mostly from Texas.)
Slamming is where they change your long distance service from your preferred service to a different one (usually one that charges a very high rate) without your permission.
I didn't know what to do about it and Southwestern Bell's answer was that I should just pay my bill and shut up. So, I called John Ashcroft's office because he was one of my US Senators. Someone at his office made a call to SW Bell on my behalf and voila my problem was solved.
In this case, he has captured people who were actually out comitting crimes against people. These crimes had victims and real consequences. I, for one, applaud this news.
Tomorrow I can go back to fuming about the patriot act. Today, I say "Thank you very much Attorney General Ashcroft for getting some criminals off the internet!"
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
Some samples of his "work".
The charges.
Apparently he's not the sharpest spoon in the drawer as he not only "email bombed" the Phillies management with rants such as this one, but also, obviously, posted the exact material to Usenet.
Read some, there's some quality trollin' ('though not as refined as the infamous "cordial boy" or King Tut).
-dameron
What are the names of the citizens who were accused by Ashcroft of terrorism and later turned out to be innocent?
Not trolling, not rhetorical. I actually really want to know if there are any.
I run a small web site that has unfortunately attracted the attention of a persistent credit card fraudster. He seems to be a kid who thinks he's anonymous but I know enough about him for any police officer to find him in minutes. I warned him that I would report him to the police if he didn't stop what he was doing but he continued so I had no option but to file a police report. (It would have been illegal for me not to report him.)
After all of the formalities had taken place I spoke to the officer who would be handling the case and I asked how long it would take to process because all the time I was losing money to some stupid kid. The officer was very understanding and sympathetic but this was roughly his reply:
"I've got a pile of reports on drugs offences. They generally take a year to process. This report will go on the bottom of that pile."
It seems to me that the reality of crime on the Internet, with the possible exception of child abuse/pornography, is that most criminals will either get away with it entirely or they'll have months, maybe years, to rip-off as many people as they want, before the law eventually catches up with them and delivers a light slap on the wrist.
ps. Wouldn't it be great if you order something over the Internet, legitimately, using your own credit card, receive the product or service but never pay a single penny? Well you can, it's easy, every online retailer knows how it's done and credit card companies have no interest in preventing it. Ask any retailer who is to blame for credit card fraud and the answer will be the same: Credit card companies. I'm not an expert on the subject but I feel confident in saying that with a change of policy from credit card issuers, upwards of 90% of online card fraud could be stopped over-night. I also feel confident in saying that this change of policy will not happen.
Given that the indictment was laid against the Philly spammer before the supposed start date of the supposed operation...
... I'd venture to say that the probability is that operation cyber sweep is little more than a PR exercise to link together various extant cases to make it look as though serious co-ordinated action is taking place.
http://www.cybercrime.gov/carlsonArrest.htm
That's not quite true. The RIAA generally pursues their cases, especially those involving only petty infringements like filesharing, in civil courts because of the lesser standard of proof, but large-scale bootlegging for profit is indeed a criminal offence.
I hate to quote the RIAA overlords on this, but for once it's fairly accurate, so here goes: Where the infringing activity is for commercial advantage or private financial gain, sound recording infringements can be punishable by up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Repeat offenders can be imprisoned for up to 10 years.
(Private financial gain does not mean avoiding "potential expenses".)
Good to see that finally they're stopping hiding behind the whole innocent until proven guilty thing.. I mean, arrested and convicted.. same thing, let's lump them in together, right? :)
"Seventy indictments to date have led to arrests or convictions of 125 people"
And do you know the "Justice" Department will use the full "retail value" that no one actually pays, right?
CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said Thursday that law-enforcement agents had arrested 125 suspects in a crackdown on Internet crimes ranging from hacking and software piracy to credit card fraud and selling stolen goods over the Internet, according to Wired. The investigation, begun Oct. 1 and dubbed Operation Cyber Sweep, involved police from Ghana to Southern California and uncovered 125,000 victims who had lost more than $100 million.
/FBI/insvestigators/staff during the operation, flights/calls/meetings for higher-ups to organize the event, press-invitations, etc etc etc vs. the actual amount of $ stolen? How much fear and ominous sounding threats against the free-intellect of the public will the American public endour before they tell these plutocratic whores to re-adjust their priorities?
So, is this worthwhile effort? Who else smells the propaganda? How much does a bs operation like this cost these governments?
Instead of pursuing violent street criminals or corporate whores who bankrupt whole billion-dollar companies with lies and theft leaving tens-of-thousands of pensioners and unemployed?
Instead John Ascroft spends his time constructing a ruse to set up as chimera for the Coprorate Media to parrot in order to scare the population straight -- wouldnt want lawlessness would we?
So, what does it cost to construct this kind of psy-op on the American public? Is the media aware before the event? How much is spent on post-'operation' press, PR, Cops
What is more important or what should government's attention/resources be spent? Helping an elderly women on a declining social-insurance in a cold tenament -- or -- making sure the Visa Board of Directors keeps profit up in order that they may share $500Million salary between 12 people?
OK, there, bucko.
(2) Learn to format your postings, please.
(3) Learn to spell.
(5) Don't assume that anyone who complains didn't vote.I voted. I complain.
(7) The Patriot Act was rushed through Congress at a time when any deviation from the President probably would have resulted in a ridiculous political backlash.
(11) Don't assume that anyone who complains is ignorant. It makes you look pompous, not intelligent.
(13) Lists are more fun if they're not based on the counting numbers!
the people taht fell for it. they dont deserve their money back.
and quite frankly im glad they lost it.
stupid people dont deserve to have money.
this wasnt some super tricky stock scam. this was stupidity and greed combined to form a nice punishment,
think of it as evolution, weeding out the idiotic rich people.
Nonsense. He is selectively enforcing the laws on behalf of the corporations that paid for those laws. I am still waiting for a day when they launch an investigation in SCO's practices and book them for criminal copyright infringement. When do you think that is going to happen?
When regular people violate corporation's copyright they are on it in no time. When corporations violate hundreds, if not thousands, of people's copyrights and sell it for profit, where is the "justice" department?
Except imprisoning or deporting that individual before he can act. But I think your logic could be applied to all law enforcement efforts, ending in the conclusion that no laws should be enforced.
The saddest thing is that so many otherwise intelligent people are hypnotized by the Republican-Democrat pingpong, and try to politicize even mundane governmental functions like catching crooks. Ashcroft is a bogey man to the left, yet I doubt that he is doing his job any differently from any other Attorney General. In fact, I doubt that the AG has much impact on Justice - he's just a short-term figurehead who represents career civil servants to the public.