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"Buffalo Spammer" Gets 3.5 to 7 Years
jfruhlinger writes "Howard Carmak, aka the 'Buffalo spammer,' has been sentenced to jail time for his spamming activities. Interestingly, the conviction was not for spamming per se, but rather stealing someone's identity, which he then used to launch his spam messages."
From the article:
The jail sentence is the maximum allowed under the law, due to Carmack's prior felony conviction for fraud in a federal case involving fake money orders, McCarthy said.
7 years is the maximum for identity theft? That actually seems a little light. I would think they'd lock him away for 15-20 for something like that. Theft + potentially ruining someone else's credit and/or reputation.
A love beyond compare...
He'll surely need a large amount of cigarettes and contraband as dowry for his marriage to Big Bubba.
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
The old cop trick, cant get em for what the biggest problem is, get them for what you can.
Should be this way more often, arrest spammers for using machines they have no proper access to, not for just for spamming.
Everybody, sing along, loud enough so that Howard can hear you all the way over in the Erie County Holding Center!
Nah nah... nah nah nah nah... hey hey hey... good-BYE!
When I read that Howard Carmack told Earthlink, "Nothing is in my name, so you'll never catch me," all I could think was, you arrogant, silly man. These are government agents and corporate attorneys that you're up against. You're an overweight criminal in his mid-30s who lives in a shack in Buffalo. I think they're gonna catch you, and right quick.
Sure enough, they did. In addition to his prison time, Carmack has a multi-million-dollar judgment against him from Earthlink for his misuse of their network.
Have fun in prison, Howard!
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
Though I hate spam as much as the next person, this sounds like it qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment.
"The jail sentence is the maximum allowed under the law, due to Carmack's prior felony conviction for fraud in a federal case involving fake money orders, McCarthy said."
Hopefully this implies that the government is realizing that most spammers are already criminals, email is just a new venue to commit the fraud.
Capone went to prison (Alcatraz) on tax evasion. I'd love to see the IRS audit all spammers they can get ahold of. It might drive them offshore, but then we might have a chance at the ISP level to blacklist IP ranges for SMTP traffic.
SPF is a good idea, I get tired of that checklist that says why your idea won't work. It's pedantic and discourages good ideas from being discussed.
If SPAM is allowed to thrive offshore, I see a time when service providers like AT&T are asked to track SMTP and provide governments the figures for - you guessed it - tariffs.
Burn the jerk.
But I have mixed feelings on this. If it was 3.5-7 for spamming, I would certainly say that is appropriate, but for identity theft? This is something that RUINS peoples lives. In a lot of cases, the vitims propogate their anguish to loved ones etc... and some even go as far as committing suicide. Actually, it stinks of the same horror as rape... you come out the other side ruined and broken... and 7 years isnt sufficient.
I personally believe we need to get things back in perspective. If you destroy someones life, whether physically, or otherwise, you should lose yours. You arent fit for our society. BURN.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
It's a good thing for this guy that sentencing for spam doesn't work like that: he supposedly sent 800 million emails using the two identities he stole.
Then again, it wasn't a spam law under which he was convicted and sentenced. But put a few spammers away for 800 million years, and it might help in the neverending fight.
/"You get out of jail about when the Sun has expanded to the size of Mars' orbit."
I am glad this guy was caught and convicted, and I'm glad it wasn't for spamming. It always amazes me how people want new laws targetting spam, but most of what the worst spammers do is already against the law and they can be targetted for that. Advertising fraudulent products is against the law. Pyramid schemes are against the law. Hacking someone's system and sending email from there is illegal. I have no problem with spam that doesn't the law in the sending. If you have a legitmate email account and send email from it, and don't make false claims, then you are using the email system as intended.
If you want to go after spammers, there are plenty you can go after suing existing laws. We don't need new laws specifically for spam anymore than we need new laws specifically for music sharers. Use the existing laws.
"Information wants to be expensive" - Stewart Brand, the same guy who said "Information wants to be free"
It certainly would appear that identity theft is perhaps the best way to prosecute these spammers. If they are not using their own address, then they are stealing the use of someone elses. If they can successfully prosecute a series of these cases, spammers may be forced to use their real addresses. At least the ethical ones... hahahahah.. sorry
For what its worth, MD just increased the penalties for spammers.
jr
Often here we see that new technology doesn't necessarily require new laws. Arresting and charging a spammer using someone else's identity to avoid being caught and held responsible is a good way to round these people up. It avoids the free speech issues completely.
$#!^ happens, but why does it always have to happen to me???
cool beans either way, so long as this guy can't continue his evil ways. capone was thrown in jail for taxes, but it kept him from mafia'ing.
I wish that I was a catfish.
excessive.
Yas I read the article. He has a prior felonies, and he stole 2 people's identity.
from the article, it seems like he used the identites to send spam. Not exactly devastating. If he had used thoose ID's to charge credit cards, buy a car, etc.. then a couple of years in prison would be adequate.
Considering how full our prisons are, and how tight state budgets are, perhaps there could be better solutions? Community service springs to mind.
He should also be responsible for undoing harm to the people whose identities he stole. We all know what a pain it is to call the credit card companies, and find out what we need to do to prove it wasn't us and get any marks removed from are credit history.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Does it mean that if I spam under my real name I am free to do it?
This is totally insecure, but very convenient.
Commercial speech should absolutely be as protected as other speech.
What people tend to do, and Americans in particular, is to confuse "freedom of speech" with "guaranteed right to an audience". Preferably on somebody else's bill.
And THAT particular bird is not going to fly.
You have the right to say whatever you want to say (well, almost, nowadays). You do not have the right to force me to listen to any of it. You do not have the right to force somebody else to carry your message.
Didn't we just go through this? All this macho GW Bush "Bring it on" wannabe talk isn't going to do anything but get people killed.
If the death penalty applies to spam, and someone might get caught for spamming, then they may as well just go kill someone while they are at it. Maybe kill the witnesses. It can't increase the severity of the penalty, so why not?
Part of justice is appropriate punishments. Walking with a swagger and carrying a noose might impress people who failed to graduate high school, but it doesn't make us any safer, or freer.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
I am stunned that a Slashdotter is taking credit for something with which he had nothing to do.
They just need to be there. SPAM is so popular because, until now, it was a more or less no risk bussiness both finincally and legally. It cost very little to get in to and you weren't going to get in trouble for what you were doing. To lessen the amout of spammers, we just need to make it unattractive. Doesn't mean we need to lock them up for life (appealing though that may sound), just a reasonable prison sentence combine with seizing all their ill gotten gains.
Most spammers will then quit. These aren't hardened, fear nothing, criminals we are talking about, they are sleazy bussiness men that see this as an easy, low risk way to make a buck. Show them it's not low risk, most of them will knock it off.
There will still be some, of course, there is always somebody stupid enough to try something, but I think it can be kept to a minimum, in the US at least (which is where the majority of it starts anyhow).
...the actual manufacturers of bogus penis enlargement pills, quasi-legal drug sales of Viagra, and other such snake oil companies. The actual spamming agencies are half the problem - the other half are the scumbags who hire them and turn a blind eye to their practices.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
Violent prison rape is *funny*?
When women who have done nothing wrong can live their lives without fear of being raped, then we can turn our attention to safeguarding criminals from other criminals. If we don't have enough resources to protect innocent people, then where are we going to find the resources to protect criminals?
he's a person with irreplaceable years of life
It is nice to meet a compassionate individual here on slashdot but keep in mind how many aggregate "irreplaceable years of life" this scumbag cost others in filling up people's inbox with junk or having to spend time setting up filters, etc. !
Victimless crime.. explain to me how something can be a victimless crime, or, if some action really is victimless, why it's a crime.
Let's say two gay men have anal sex. Where's the victim? Yet, untill recently, that was illegal in Texas. Many states have had anti-masterbation laws in the past as well. Where's the victim there?
People just like screwing up other people's lives for the hell of it.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Drugs need not leed to make oneself in to a "partical lunatic, a menace to others , etc ...". They could, but they don't have to.
Consentual sodomy could spread disease, but the risks of transmission are lower when proper precautions are used. Precautions are much more likely to be used when there is no need hide the activity bacause it's illegal.
For a crime to be victimless, it's really only something that someone (including yourself) consents to. It must also not endanger or inconveniece someone else. ID theft might be better said is that the victim did not suffer direct physical harm. For example physical assult. As a consequence of the crime, the victim could have lost the resources to get medical treatment (for example), however this would be indirect.
If you're going to regulate self-abuse, then 4/5th of Slashdot would have no love life at all.
Off-topic: Prohibition on any activity should only be a last resort outside of theft, assult or murder (broadest definitions here). If it is more-or-less 'victimless', then regulate if you have to, otherwise, leave it alone.