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First Four People Charged Under CAN-SPAM Act
friedo writes "Four people in Detroit have been charged with emailing fraudulent sales pitches under the new federal CAN-SPAM Law. 'They were accused of disguising their identities in hundreds of thousands of sales pitches and delivering e-mails by bouncing messages through unprotected relay computers on the Internet.'"
Sadly, I doubt this will make any difference - they'll just forge more headers.
Aw, who am I kidding. Prosecuting people has never been a deterent to the crime.
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
Now we just need four convicted.
Can't they be charged under 18 USC 1030 for illegal access to systems? If they were relaying messages through machines, odds are the machines were trojaned, and that's considered illegal access.
e w. html
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/1030_n
Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
just curious how much they could be potentially sentanced for?
any chance they would see the inside of a jail cell over this?
or is it just a monetary fine (i.e. slap on the wrist)
people who do this should be banned from technology a-la Kevin Mitnick
I mean we arrest people for soliciting sex right? [Despite the fact that both sex and commerce are legal... :-)].
So why not make it illegal to buy wares from spammers who don't identify themselves [which keeps the door open for free speech by allowing people who do identify themselves a way out]?
E.g. buy V1c0din from "HornyToad@hotmail.com" and get a 2000$ fine. Sadly the only way to really enforce this would be to send out spam themselves....
Or what they could do is when they catch a spam operation keep the website/email live and catch the people trying to buy the stuff.
Anyways, if you make people who are already leary about buying X.@.n.4.x from people off the net even more leary it hurt their business that much more.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
I am particularly pleased the government is charging the guy for unauthorized relay. As shocked as he may be at the visit from authorities, I am sure his victims were equally shocked when they discovered that hundreds of thousands of emails were being relayed through their servers.
First Four People Charged Under CAN-SPAM Act
You're giving the spammers too much credit.
Sweet!
As long as they don't have to send everyone an apology...
This simply a case for the Federal Trade Commission. The inclusion of CAN-SPAM law into the criminal charges is merely an after thought (as I mentioned before):
From the Article:
By this, as well as the FTC's involvement (see FTC link above), this is a simple case of fraud. The CAN SPAM sentancing guidelines provide for tacking an extra couple of years to the sentance in such a case.
The addition to CAN-SPAM in this case will only serve to attract more attention to the problem of E-mail fraud. My previous statement remains, "an extra 1 to 3 years tacked onto a felony conviction is nothing compared to the sentance that is already being faced."
Kinetic stupidity has a new brand leader: Allen Zadr.
According to Shiksaa, they're Alan Ralsky's little fish. Nail him, and the world's spam load really will drop.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
DJ245 writes "Two people at Slashdot have been charged with writing bad slashdot stories under the new Slashdot story guidelines. 'They are accused of using improper verb tense and not putting in a final conspiracy or troll wibble at the conclusion.'"
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Yep.. I was one of the domain owners who was joe-jobbed by these guys, and contacted by the FTC to provide them with copies of the complaints that I recevied.
Apparently anti-spam/anti-virus services were the main targets of their joe-jobbing.
That was a few months ago, February to be exact. It wasn't public because they didn't want to scare these guys off before they were ready.
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
He is a federal prosecutor based in Chicago and they have a wide latitude to pursue cases as they see fit. They set up hundreds of email honeypots and pursue any scams, false claims or in this case bunk medical products that are being peddled in spam. He didn't give me any details but he said - "Wednesday we are nabbing some perps..." and sure enough! Another thing he indicated to me was that they can choose their own path of pursuit... he personally likes to go after the 'Award Notifiation' scam - Send us $25 for your reward up to $10,000. That kind of thing. He is currently closing in on one of these individuals... bank accounts all over the world etc. Cellphone spam is another one of his pet peeves because a lot of carriers charge two cents or something per message received - so I forward all of my spam (10,000 pieces a day at least) into one of his honeypots to help his pursuit. Be warned spammers and scammers, there are very smart people who go to work everyday to catch you and they can subpoena server logs all along the way to find you. [+] sniper scope.
Let's get one thing straight right now: These people are not being charged with spamming. They are being charged with spamming in a manner not in compliance with the CAN-SPAM act. Dell, General Electric, and Microsoft (for example) will all be able to comply with the CAN-SPAM act -- it was written for their ilk. Big corporations don't have to worry about some anti-spam vigilante threatening them or their family. They don't have to be concerned that their credit will be destroyed. Then don't have to worry about their phones ringing all night long. The won't be particularly upset if pictures of their headquarters and their contact information appear on Slashdot. They can afford to hire operators to man the phones and deal with angry spam recipients.
These charges are just part of clearing out the small-time operators in order to make room for the big boys. Our fine friends in government want to get rid of the sleaziest stuff so the Fords, Walmarts, and Panasonics of the world can spam without being associated with the Internet porn and snake-oil spams. When the penis enlarger and herbal viagra spams end, then you can expect to see your mailbox filled with spam from major corporations -- all of whom can afford Internet pipes that would make the small-time spammers weak in the knees.
CAN-SPAM is not the last word. Call your Congressional representatives and tell them that you want legislation with teeth that makes all spam (usolicited bulk e-mail) illegal. Make it illegal to send it, illegal to pay someone else to send it, illegal to relay it, and illegal for ISPs to knowingly provide safe havens for spammers. Require that ISPs act within 24 hours of getting notification of spam activity and that they not "warn" spammers. Pressure other countries to pass similar legislation. Don't tell me that it can't be done -- just look at the DMCA-like laws being enacted everywhere and how the draconian laws favored by the RIAA and MPAA are being passed throughout the world due to U.S. pressure.
extra 1 to 3 years tacked onto a felony conviction is nothing
Oh yes it is, while you go in thinking it's nothing usualy because it's served concurrently with the primary sentence; I can guarentee that the Parole board will look at it differently. In fact if you cop a plea, you generaly have waived your right to be presumed inocent. The means you did, what you were charged with, not just what you were convicted of. Another Gotcha is these guys now have two felonies, after they do say 7 years of a 7-12 federal sentence, they get out on parole and blow a stop light, in Michigan they are now 3 time lossers and get 1-3 in a MI prison as an habitual offender.
Being in prison is no joke either, think about this;
you're now working for 28 cents an hour, your wife divorces your sorry ass, and child-support leaves you with $7.00 a month disposeable income. If you get sick or injured, medicade has a $3.00 co-pay that's almost half a months income, He'll only tell you "take some asprin and see me in two weeks" so there goes the rest of the months income (don't no-show either, you'll get a ticket for disobeying a direct order, that the parole board won't like). No these guys are going to become four more kiss-ass punks in a world of hurt and are probably too stupid to realise it.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
Hey, I work in West Bloomfield where they arrested the guys. I work at the West Bloomfield Public Library. We've had people come in here before to try to spam and have kicked them out. I wonder if it is the same people.