Slashdot Mirror
Dozens Charged in Spam Crackdown
JohnnyGTO writes "Federal and state law enforcement agencies have quietly arrested or charged dozens of people with crimes related to junk e-mail, identity theft and other online scams in recent weeks, according to several people involved in the actions."
I think they should not so quietly drag the perpetrators 1 foot for every SPAM, Virus and identity theft that they are convicted of. Some of these people would have to be dragged to the moon and back but that is all right; they can scream as loud as they want in space and it will still be quite.
About time these scum got nailed
Now.. who wants to buy some cheap h3rbal vi.agr@?
Oh, and I've got a few million I need to temporarily offload into a bank account...
Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.
I hope the people for www.freeipods.com get busted too.
I am so sick of them.
http://saveie6.com/
from 'Spam' to 'Hormel Chili' for a better image.
Shouldn't it be a lot larger number? I mean, I'm glad that they are trying to stop this stuff, but please. Make a big impact showing how much we hate spammers, and maybe, just maybe, it will scare a bunch and lower our spam in our inboxes.
Boxing Equipment Reviews
But Mr. Linford of Spamhaus said he thought that the current wave of prosecutions had the potential to at least temporarily diminish the flood of spam.
Does ANYONE think that this will reduce spam in the near future? I'm still getting flooded, and I'll bet anything that my spam filters won't get any kind of a breather just because of a few arrests.
I'm sure "SlashdotMedia" will improve on all the wonders that Dice Holdings blessed us all with
Why am I still getting massive amounts of spam in my yahoo, angelfire, and comcast accounts today? I guess they have some more work to do (I haven't even noticed a decrease).
[FromTheMorning]
They may have to keep all the money from the prince of Nigeria, who died 10 years ago in a terrible plane crash, to pay attorney fees. At least they have that.
Isn't part of the punishment for the crime supposed to be that it serves as a deterrent for other's who'd do the same thing?
... is lost, if you keep it a *secret*! Why didn't you tell the world, eh?"
To quote Dr. Strangelove:
"Of course, the whole point
Specialization is for insects. - R.A.H.
How many of them had the FBI break down their doors and seize their computers? Or was it more like "Mr Spammer, after you've called your attorney, we'd like you to come down to the station for a few hours..."
I mean, it's not like they're hackers....
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
Does this mean that Ashcroft is now our friend or is this the wrong week?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I'd pay for a ticket - or at least a web cast.
Sell "execution privs" on a ebay to the highest bidder.
Use licensed Marshals and bounty hunters to capture them.
Put a bounty on their heads.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
You can read more about the organization here.
(Disclaimer - I was one of the early members of the organization.)
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
The US is still the biggest source of spam on the net, pumping out nearly 3 times as much as its closest competitor.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Ya think it might be an election-year in the USA???!
JMR
Try e-gold - (contact me). I'm NOT e-
It's about time that law enforcement began to see spam for what it is -- not just an annoying bulk mailing operation, but part of a larger racketeering operation that's primarily focused on defrauding people.
I've long advocated RICO-style investigations (if not actual RICO prosecutions) of the entire world of spam. This doesn't just mean the bulk mailing operations, but the people behind the actual spamvertised businesses and their legitimate-world suppliers.
Broad-based prosecutions promising long prison time not only for spammers, and spam businesses but for people who knowingly make money off of spammers (banks, ISPs, list vendors, etc) will go a long way towards demotivating people in the legitimate business world from working with spammers/spam businesses.
Spammers and spam businesses need a certain cooperation and acceptance in the legitimate business world to make money. Without that, they'll be far less effective.
The submitter missed the most interesting part of the entire article: the fact that this crackdown is financed mainly by spammers (the direct marketing assoc)! They probably are just trying to get rid of the most blatant illegal stuff so they can further their goal of legitamizing spam. Or they could just be cracking down on competitors with the Fed's help.
Much of the financing for the efforts, known as Operation Slam Spam, comes from the Direct Marketing Association, a trade group that wants to promote what it sees as the legitimate use of e-mail marketing.
According to the article, the DMA is funding this "crackdown". They are trying to make it easier for DMA members to get their spam noticed. The DMA got the you CAN Spam law written they way that they wanted it written, now they are using it to kill the competition. This is just one more example of an industry cartel using laws that they bought and paid for to kill anybody who is not a member of the cartel.
Spammers get a lot of blame for all this, and they should - they're evil. But don't forget two important parties in all of this - the advertisers and the fools that actually READ their spam.
Any company willing to spam others needs to have its practices reexamined. How can the justice department go after spammers and not even blink at the advertising firms that PAY to have it all done? It's like putting the hitman in jail and ignoring the mobster that hired him.
And let's not forget that sending out mass emails has to be worth it to companies, otherwise one would think they wouldn't do it. There's a reason that you keep getting reminders to have your penis enlarged, and it's not because they found your email address on slashdot. People are buying this crap, and these morons need to be stopped now.
I'd call for more education on the subject ("How not to click on that popup" or "How to ignore or filter your spam email"), but due to the fact that it is much more gratifying and probably cheaper overall to just throw the emailers into jail, as well as the fact that I'm a nobody, my calls would proabably go unheeded.
Finding every penny can be difficult when the larger spammers route money overseas into foreign bank accounts. Then there's the Florida bankruptcy laws which make it nearly impossible to take the spammer's multi million dollar mansion (many spammers have one in Florida for this reason). I do agree, however, that more efforts like this will decrease the profitability of spamming and cause more people to come to the conclusion that spamming is not worth it. Then of course they'll go back to selling used cars, bouncing checks, or whatever they did before the internet became popular.
Anyone know which specific spammers are being charged?
In Soviet Russia, I ruled you
So long as he seeks unbridled power for the government, resists any legal constraints placed upon his power, and uses millenialism to justify his policies, he will never be a friend.
The only proper place for John Ashcroft is hanging from a tree.
I suppose criminal prosecution is worth a shot, but I like most everyone else have serious doubts about its effectiveness. This first "wave" has apparently been carefully planned and yet nabbed only "dozens" of perpetrators, and I would imagine most of those were of the "stupid enough to get caught" variety. Now let's guess how many of those dozens will actually go to trial, much less be convicted. But while skepticism is natural and logical, I do think it's worthwhile that the government is at least attempting something, even if it is mostly lip service. Whether it means more foreign spammers (likely) or just more clever ones here (likely as well), I don't expect this to make a lot of difference and continue to pin my hopes more on technology than the legal system.
What intrigues me, though, is the question as to whether or not this approach differs from the current attack on piracy. What's the real difference, that the general masses enjoys piracy and hates spam? Identity theft and credit card fraud are clearly in another category, but I wonder if the vile nuisance of spam is really worth large fines and/or jail-time. You're bothering ordinary, ostensibly innocent people, but I'm just not convinced that is a heck of a lot more offensive than hurting faceless corporations. I'm definitely against the DMCA and for anything that cuts down on spam, but I wonder if those positions are a bit hypocritical.
I know it clogs servers, but PHBs are still fear mongering to charge $.01 for each sent email, idea being spammers will have to pay for the right(?) to abuse. I see it as punish the rest for a few, the few who will never care what happens to the innocent, they still make money.o ptin1.clickformail.com
As a public service, the following domains have been banished, as well as 95% of Megs of spam a week:
@2243.ewsifh398.com
@mx31.blindu89.biz
@
Before I banned them, I got at least 1 meg spam/3 days. That'll kill my inbox, and my provider was kind enough to remove all my old, dust covered emails I was saving so they could provide me this bright, shiny new spam! AGH! Wanted to KILL!
If servers would route this junk to an universal delete before it got to destination, the spammers would be out of business. There would have to be a distributed system for qualifying what was spam, and just not allowing the system to send it. Attatchments are another peeve of mine, with 30k virus attatched(Would you like to open this?). If I have never sent to the email in question, then I sould never see a Re: coming from them, filter! It would save gigs for provider alone!
Just my thoughts, and you are entitled to them >:{
This mind intentionally left blank.
The KKK a bunch of sheetheads? You decide!
"It has also deployed online decoys to catch spammers and has purchased products advertised in spam messages so that the financial records can be traced to the ultimate source of the message."
Why didn't I think of that! Practically speaking the advertised product has to come from within the States. They can move the spam servers to Russia if they want but the actual revenue generating stuff is still where the feds can get at it. Bloody brilliant! Shut down the money part and the spam stops. Or am I being too optimistic?
Whew... thank God. My penis was getting so long I was starting to trip over it.
I always save my last mod point to mod up a good troll. You people are too serious.
Get [perscription pill] online without seeing your doctor
An online form is not enough of a relationship for which a doctor can write you a perscription pill. State boards of health are in charge of stopping that.
Hot stock tip! Buy [stock you never heard of] today!
Classic pump-and-dump stock scam. The FTC and other stock market regulators are in charge of stopping that.
Cable TV filter lets you watch digital Pay Per View for free!
Nice try. What the filter does is block the upbound transmission from a digital cable box so that when a purchase is authorized by the user it can't communicate back to the cable company billing system while still letting the inbound signals through so the box appears to be working fine. There's only one catch, after a couple months your box will it hasn't been able send anything to home base, and completely shut down. Connecting it to the system without the filter will allow all the PPVs to show up on your next bill, and turning your box in for a replacement will allow the cable company to discover what's still in the box's memory. If you claim the box is lost forever, you'll have to pay for losing it. There is no free lunch.
Get [brand name software] for [insane low price]!
Pirated software, of course... if there is actually anything behind this offer at all. Try buying from a more trustworthy channel while the Microsoft/Symantec/etc. attack lawyers get ready to pounce on these guys.
Get Rich Quick!
Clasic ponzi scheme translated to e-mail... FTC will be arresting the guy at the top long before you get your millions.
[Your Bank] needs your account information back
When does a bank ever have an IT system without backing it up? Besides, if the username/password/account data table is lost, they'll build another by creating a new logon, not by asking you for the old one! These e-mails are simple wire fraud phishing.
Deposed leader [name you never heard of] needs your help to get [large sum of money out] of [someplace]. Please let him borrow your bank account.
Scam from the start. Even more dangerous because your home country law can't really stop scammers in third world nations.
Just as branding your enemy a communist during the 1950s was a sure fire way of ensuring their downfall, the so-called War on Terror has sparked a modern day witch hunt for "terrorist links".
As the United States Department of Justice attempts to extradite an Australian indicted as head of an international email spamming ring, the battle against spam has been spurred by unsubstantiated claims it funds terrorism.
The Department of Justice made the claims before a United States congressional hearing earlier this month but could not provide evidence.
Organised criminal syndicates profit from spam, according to Jack G. Michael, a deputy assistant attorney general in the criminal division at the Department of Justice. He was addressing the US House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Direct Marketing Association oversight hearing, titled "International Email Spam Links to Organised Crime and Terrorism".
Making the link to terrorism Malcolm said, "Organised crime syndicates are frequently engaged in many types of criminal enterprises, including supporting terrorist activities".
Malcolm could not cite an actual case where spam was linked to terrorism, but said, "it would surprise me greatly if the number were not large".
The Direct Marketing Association head James Valentine continued the terrorism theme in his written submission to the hearing.
"September 11 changed the way Americans look at the world. It also changed the way American law enforcement looks at spamming crimes," wrote Valentine - borrowing from a November 2002 article in the Customs Service newsletter US Customs Today.
The Department of Justice's war on spam was boosted recently by the indictment of 40-year-old Ray Hugh Griffin, of South Wales, as co-leader of the worldwide spamming group SpendToSave.
The extradition of Griffin - known by the online alias "SanNiBel" - will be sought "in the coming weeks," according to US Attorney Peter J McCarthy.
Griffin's indictment is the latest action arising from "Operation Mountaineer" - a joint US Customs and Department of Justice investigation which has seen 20 people convicted.
Operation Mountaineer has seen spammers put behind bars for several years. Similar penalties should apply to college students sending unsolicited messages using chat applications such as Gaim and MSN, Congressman John Carter - a Texas Republican - told the congressional hearing.
"I think it'd be a good idea to go out and actually bust a couple of these college kids," said Carter.
"If you want to see college kids duck and run, you let them read the papers and somebody's got a 33-month sentence in the federal penitentiary for sending unsolicited emails."
Please bear in mind, this is not a victory of honest folk over spammers, but a victory of spammers who are members of the DMA over their competitors. The DMA got a law passed which allows them to keep spamming but can be used to make business harder for non-DMA members. That's good business and I think the DMA have done _very_ well for a lobby with no initial political clout or connections.
Just don't interpret this as some new ideological initiative. It's simply an investment by the DMA which favors the DMA and hurts their competitors
.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
Bloody vikings.
It's not a pyramid scheme as much as it's a "sell stuff to your friends without getting paid much" scheme.
Perhaps you should take the quiz they have here:
http://www.pyramidschemealert.org/
Next thing you know, someone will be telling us that those penis enhancement pills are legit, too, just because they advertise on TV...
What does that one commercial say?
"We said it on TV, so it must be true!"
I seem to remember a few very... interesting... statements televised by the Iraqi Information Minister, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton & Richard Nixon, too, and that's off the top of my head.
Per TFA, they're being arrested quietly because they (or their computers) are providing information that's being used to build a case against other spammers. The government don't want to alert other suspects.
Sean