"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."

Comments

Bravo everyone! We all had a part in this.

[Weaselmancer]

These days, it's a truth that most spammers have to break other laws to try to get their spam out. It's not like the old days of open relays and a trusting email network. Now, we have worm exploits, stolen identities, account phishing, hacked boxes...the list goes on and on.

We can pat ourselves on the back here, I think. Now that we're as a community becoming aware of the spam problem and doing something about it (like closing down open relays and blocking those who don't), spammers now have to break other laws to get their crap through.

And that makes them targets for prosecution. So, let's all give ourselves a round of applause here. If you closed an open relay, or wiped out a worm, you contributed to this!

Let's all keep up the good work.

Weaselmancer

One down...

[PoisonousPhat]

200+ to go:

"The Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) database collates information and evidence on known hard-line spam operations that have been terminated by a minimum of 3 consecutive Service Providers for serious spam offenses.

200 Known Spam Operations responsible for 90% of your spam.

90% of spam received by Internet users in North America and Europe can be traced via redirects, hosting locations of web sites, domains and aliases, to a hard-core group of around 200 known spam operations, almost all of whom are listed in the ROKSO database. These spam operations consist of an estimated 500-600 professional spammers loosely grouped into gangs ("spam gangs"), the vast majority of whom are operating illegally, and who move from network to network seeking out Internet Service Providers ("ISPs") known for lax enforcing of anti-spam policies."

Re:3.5-7 Seems a little light

[thedillybar]

The New York State case followed a civil suit against Carmack by EarthLink that resulted in a US$16 million award against Carmack in May, 2003.

It looks like he got fined as well as jailtime. Good thing, because he probably made enough to live the rest of his life on.

1. Spam.
2. Profit.
3. If you're unlucky (probably less than 1% of spammers), get locked up for 4 years.
4. Retire to a mansion on the beach.

Sounds like a good deal to me.