Federal Bounty on Spammers

Portigui writes "CNN is reporting that the FTC is considering imposing a bounty on spammers. They are guessing it would take between $100,000 to $250,000 to get people to rat out their friends, coworkers, etc... Interstingly enough is that it is 'higher than rewards in most high-profile criminal and terrorism cases. For example, the FBI pays $50,000 for tips leading to the arrests of most of its top 10 fugitives.'"

Comments

Re:Karma Whoring 101

[Monkeyman334]

Why repost comments and be a karma whore? You could instead repost stories and become an editor.

but what do we do with them once we catch them?

[Wilk4]

I know we all have our personal lists of the things we'd like to do to spammers ;-) but until someone can effectively prosecute them on it what's the point of catching them?

The laws are pitiful and full of loopholes built in by the direct marketing lobbyists, and even Eliot Spitzer has mostly given the spammers he's prosecuted mere slaps on the wrist.

If I were a spammer, I'd have a friend turn me in for the reward, take the minimal risk that anyone could actually prosecute me on it, then split the reward with the friend. Sounds like instant profit to me...

... and probably an easier way to "make money fast" ;-) than actually spamming...

For that matter, such a scheme could work well enough to bring new people into the spamming field just to turn themselves in...

Re:$100k-$250k?!

[stratjakt]

They're looking to turn partners against each other. That's the only way to get a real conviction. A witness would have to see, or participate in the spamming for his testimony to be useful.

Ie; you couldn't go to court and testify "stratjakt is a spammer because he told me all about it at the bar!" That would be heresay. You could say "stratjakt and I ran a spamming operation, I rolled on him to avoid prosecution. I was just following orders, honest!"

I'm not a lawyer, of course.

Of course, you have to make the reward for rolling over on your partners greater than the rewards of staying loyal.

There's no honor among thieves. Computer criminals are the pussiest of all criminals. The warez rings crumble like a house of cards once they pick up a couple of easily intimidated 13 year old kids. Show em a list of charges, show em a picture of goatse, let them connect the dots, and get out your notebook to start jotting down names and numbers.