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Microsoft Sues 117 Phishers
An anonymous reader writes "Earlier this week Microsoft filed 117 John Doe cases today to learn the identity of scam artists who have been targeting its Hotmail and MSN customers in phishing scams, according to a Washington Post story. This is the same tactic the music and motion picture industries have used to mixed success against file-swappers, except in this case the ISPs themselves are some of the biggest targets of phishing scams. The story says the tactic has already worked once for Microsoft; in a case last year where ISP subpoenas led to a kid in Iowa who was caught phishing MSN users from his grandpa's dial-up account. The 21-year-old was ordered to pay Microsoft $3 million, but I doubt his job at Blockbuster is going to make a dent in that debt."
NO. Really. It isn't.
I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
Is this finally for real?
(didn't RTFA)
It would be quite amusing if it turned out one of the Phisher's names was "John Doe".
I mod down pathetic posts.
lets just instate a cull. give us all "Phishing Hunting" licenses, and let us roam the country side with the weapons of our choice.
"The beast in me is caged by frail and fragile bars" - Johnny Cash
between file swapping and phishing.
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
With the massive fraud by the operators of this site today, how do we know one way or the other?
Somehow I think Chuck is rolling over in his grave approving of this post. Wasn't Zonk the type of candy in the 70s or possibly the term used for someone that was gonged out of competition during chuck's drug induced state of euphoric fun called the Gong Show :)
--- Old Time NeXThead
the joke is that it's about 5 days old.
I've been noticing a couple of websites that have been adding 'tags' to news posts to differentiate between the 'funny' and the real. Might we see something like this next year?
I think its because of all the "joke" posts. Next year I hope this dosen't get repeated because this is a REAL post.
I just googled the phisher king's name and saw a few MMF spams from 1999 with that name and a Davenport street address. Coincidence?
Evil sig is livE.
This isn't an April's Fools joke. It's a vision into the future, where a phisher's name really IS John Doe!
Debugging? Klingons do not debug. Bugs are good for building character in the user.
hee hee, microsoft, which never misses a chance to get its hands in users' pockets, is getting after somebody else who wants to do the same? TOO funny!!! ROFL!!!!!! ah, geez, how do they keep coming up with this stuff?
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I can't believe that the slashdot editors greenlighted such a poorly worded post on the front page. At the very least, they should have edited the post before putting it on the front page. WTF, they should know the different between file trading and phishing.
Oh, they should string up the phishers by their thumbs. Good for MS (I don't believe I just wrote that, it really is April Fools Day)
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
"but I doubt his job at Blockbuster is going to make a dent in that debt"
I think I ow blockbusters about that with all these late returns.. god damn it.
moo
It pounds, the drum, the drum, the drum
The tumbril rolls to its slow beat
Condemned and damned besot with rum
the doomed kneels down his doom to meet
His neck will feel the sharpened blade
his sand of life drifts thru the sieve
Fish not in royal ponds or glade
If long you have a wish to live
doom to phishers
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
They've began doing something I can enjoy. They've finally taken the side of the masses and not themselves!!
In America, you spam computers In Soviet Russia, computers spam you!
Microsoft if it was to do the decent thing would just hand over the evidence to the Police
by suing they get to make a load of cash at the same time all at the expense of people the phishers ripped off in teh first place, where some see shit others see gold
nice huh
Microsoft doing something for their customers? That cracks me up every time.
Illegal? Samir, This is America.
gag stories? wait, your telling me slashdot is about stuff that matters? no way!
moo
Are we sure it isn't another April Fools story? Microsoft doing something good?
may need to mod yourself up there buddy, no wait, you cant mod yourself. ah your screwed now!
moo
...there is some humor in envisioning the look on Microsoft's lawyers when they are awarded a 34th generation tape of Halloween 94', and a half empty bottle of Patchouli Oil.
I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
And the truth comes out...
Microsoft always did make money from other peoples work, this time its just phishers instead of sofware companies but the results are the same, rich lawyers, income streams up, and customers are still without their money.
In an Open Source world, would we ever see these kinds of lawsuits? Is there afterall some use for these large companies with big $$$ ?
wow...a little late? Maybe next time refresh in another browser to see...
http://abc.go.com/video/video320x240.html?channel= featured&clip=/Primetime/lost_117_recap_joi8_high. asx
I couldn't get it to stream in Windows Media player, but maybe you will have better luck on your apple.
In my years of reading slashdot, this is one of the most horribly worded article submissions.
Does slashdot editors consider music sharing in the same light as phishing/spamming and the magic love pill? The teenager seems to be mentioned on the same lines of the other youngsters who were targetted by the RIAA.
In related news, which company makes the most focused effort to bringing the spam-pigs to justice? Check Here
I can see only one reason for all this. Its Microsoft!
I wonder if anyone else who saw they were going after 117 phishers thought the same thing I did.
(Namely, something along the lines of: OMG WTF!?!? 117??? Freakin sweet!! Bungie r0x0rs & MS kicks teh butt MC style!).
Ahem, don't ask.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
/)
It says "117 John Doe", but I read "John-117", the name of the protaganist in Halo and Halo 2, published by MS. Weird.
I have fifteen Phish concerts shared out over Bittorrent, you insensitive clod!
I think I'll come back tomorrow then good, dependable returns to /.
Profanity - The sign of a small mind trying to express itself.
This is the same tactic the music and motion picture industries have used to mixed success against file-swappers
Uhh, this is true. They're handling the case in pretty much the same way. That says nothing about the similarities/differences of phishing and file-swapping.
If other reasons we do lack, we swear no one will die when we attack
Do you ever wonder why something that sounds perfectly normal when spoken but has the same word twice in a row (e.g. "written in in crayon") can look so incredibly stupid when written?
I'd have thought they'd hire them to "improve" sales.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
ah, I know it's too late. April Fool's Day posts were just pissing me off enough. It led to pointless comments on almost all posts, and this really late first post. Because I proved on a few other posts that nobody's wasting mod points today.
Make your computer faster: rm -rf
This is an old scam. Fixing the systemic problems that enables it on the net (too easy information sharing, government mandated IDs that can easily be misused, etc.) is hard, and requires government action. It is only becoming easy because of tech; and saying that punishing people harder because the tech slider moved is the functionally the same argument that calls for protecting buggy whip makers. The bar moved; things that used to work need to, too. There are always scammers and parasites. punishing them more doesn't fix the problem that allows them to do the job. Unfortunately, there are a lot of interests that profit from the current situation, not to mention the terrorism hysteria, sotightening up personal privacy is an uphill battle at the moment. Sucks to be a middle class victim right now, but that's who's paying for it. And lots of them are paying.
BTW. This is one of my political hot points. But anyone who believes that prison rape is an equitable punishment for being found guilty for any of the things that are currently on the books is someone that needs to take a serious look at their morals, the law, or, preferably, both. If you're just joking, take a look at what actually happens. If you're not, I hope you just have yet to think about what you're saying.
I forget what 8 was for.
Email phishing is a small part of the problem that Microsoft has spent the last 15 years creating: the average user is totally ignorant of how to use a computer.
Windows goes out of its way to protect itself from the user, and its architecture is so full of holes that it then exposes that user to spam, viruses, phishing, identity theft, etc. Knowledge is power, and Joe User has no power over their computer, because Microsoft forgoes useful documentation, overwhelming users with the perceived need for functionality (email, documents, media) instead of teaching users how to use that functionality responsibly. Microsoft maintains the power by keeping users in the dark.
If p2p authors can be held accountable for how their software is used, then MS should be held responsible for allowing virii to be assembled via drag-n-drop in Visual Studio.
It's not phishers... it's phishermen. Sheesh ;)
RP
21 is an adult. Using grandpa's dial-up account or not, he should (if found guilty) be screwed as much as the law permits.
Damn parasites.
How severe a crime is normally comes from what kind of harm it causes. Murder is a very severe crime since the harm is massive. Shoplifing is quite a minor crime since the harm is minimal. Speeding is just a civil matter, since there is no direct harm (just an increased probability of a mistake causing harm).
The way the MPAA/RIAA/etc talk about file sharing, they act like it's on the severity level of grand theft or so. They act as though massive amounts of actual harm are being caused. Thus they argue for stiff penalities, currently lawsuits in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and they want a law making it criminal carrying prison time.
In actuality, file sharing is like speeding. There is no direct harm. There is no loss of money, since they never had the money in the first place. There is a potential loss of money, since you now have something you potentially might have paid for, but then a bad review, friend's suggestion, or alternate product can cause the same thing. Also, even the potential loss is small.
Now phishing is a moderatly severe crime. It causes serious economic damage to the victim (phishers generally take them for all they can) as well as damage to their credit, which is difficult to repair, and the necessity to essentially recreate one's identity. The harm is very real, not at all potential.
Thus it's quite relivant to point out the difference. One is a much more severe crime. I fully support agressive tactics and stiff punishments to shut down and convict phishers, just as I do for armed robbers, car thieves and so on. I do not support agressive tactics and stiff punishments to shot down file sharers, any more than I do speeders, those that litter, underage drinkers and so on.
Surely somebody who has reached the age of 21-years should no longer be considered a kid in any sense of the word? Is labelling him a "kid" somehow meant to explain or even excuse his actions?
1) Produce email software with massive security problems... .....
2) Ignore your customers complaints about fixing it...
3)
4) Profit
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
this is old news... I'd find the link, but I'm to drunk...
welcome to slashdot, you newbs.. (wiyth MY high numnber)
some Mod got out of bed the wrong side today... or else fell for one of the pranks... or else can't stand to see jibes at his favourite email client...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Not another April Fools joke. Ug.
Well, he'd better get phishing if he wants to pay that bill.
The 'kid' should have to serve one year for every person he electronically mugged.
Well Microsoft will have to start looking for new and exciting ways to make money since Longhorn isn't going to be launched for another 17 years...
Your writing/music/video is not your house. You have no fundamental right to prevent someone 6000km away from you from making a copy of a disc to one of his friends, an activity that has no direct bearing on you at all.
Copyright exists only to help the general public by encouraging production of new works. Giving "the right to redistribution" to the artist exclusively is a mere legal convenience. We shouldn't let our ethics be distorted by copyright holders' use of inaccurate terms like "theft" and "piracy".
Copy right. Get it?
You, and others, forget that your "right" to make copies (fair use) is given to you with the same stroke of the pen that gave you the responsibility to respect the owner of that copyright.
I'm not an **AA agent trolling here, I'm trying to make a valid point. The law gave you certain rights, but it also gave the producer of the work certain rights. Words like "theft" and "piracy" are over used, and I disagree with the legal tactics of the **AA (as I do the BSA's tactics and others who overstep their bounds, Orrin Hatch listening?).
However, as a music, movie, software or literary producer you've got the right to decide how and where your work gets used (within limits). You sign a deal with Sony or Time Warner, not for recording time and promotion, but so they can mass distribute your music and make those decisions for you. Otherwise you'd have to do that yourself - and you already had the music thing down.
The reason you go for GPL or FDL licenses is because you want to ensure people respect your wishes that modifications are made openly and so forth...
It really burns me to see the same people making issues of GPL/copyleft violations while attacking other people's right to copyright. Copyleft is still copyright, no matter which way you look at it.
Make copies for your friends, but don't hide behind that next time, thinking mass distribution is your right. It's this type of thinking, the application of the idea that "information wants to be free" to entertainment, that makes more restrictive laws necessary and possible. Stop! Because people crying about "freedom" the most are the ones costing us the most. I'm sure RMS thinks Microsoft is wrong for charging what they do for software - but I doubt he advocates breaking the law to demonstrate that idea.
Get your Unix fortune now!
What I'm wondering is, why aren't the real phishing targets doing the same thing. Most phishers going where the money is, spoofing banks, crdeit card companies, Ebay, PayPal and such.
Why aren't THEY stepping up to the plate to protect their customers (and themselves)? For MS, losses due to phishing are so small as to absolutely disappear within the losses due to piracy. For banks, credit companies, et al, phishing is a new form of identity theft that could cost billions.
Microsoft are hosting domain and mailservices for the wellknown LOTTERY scamming. Those scammers, often claiming to be from the UK, register names at MSN personal domain service, and have the mail for those domains handled by MSN Hotmail.
They send spam messages around claiming you have won a price in some lottery, sometimes even "the Microsoft Word Lottery" or similar.
Of course, it is a Negerian 419 scam. When you would go about claiming your price, you would have to pay some notary fee, or another advance fee.
Microsoft are fully aware of this situation, but they keep it covered. Heck, they don't even do something about it: you can send as many abuse messages as you like to Microsoft, MSN, MS Personal domains, Hotmail or whatever. They are either silently ignored, or replied with a standard message that says you should go somewhere else, or replied with a message saying that because the original spam was not sent via their system they are not going to do anything about it.
When they really are so concerned about fraudulous activity, they should first look at the fraudsters they are hosting themselves on their own systems and under their own administrative control.
Block those domains, stop hosting their mail, take action against the abuse of their trademarks, etc.
So, the dreaded, hated phishers, who try to steal your money or identity are in fact heroes.
/. can the most hated bastards be considered heroes ... taken advantage of by MS who somehow forced them to phish with their software.
... must be the fault of the Door manufacturer, not the bastard who broke it open!
... must be the fault of the car maker, not the bastard who took it.
... must be the fault of granny for being made so insecure by old age, not the bastard who attacked her.
Yes, lets all blame MS for the actions of the phishers. It's no fault of the actual bastards who are doing the crime.
Only on
analogy time!
Someone break into your house?
Someone steal your car?
Someone rape your grandma?
Give me a break dumbasses! This one isn't MS's fault. Do you blame the gun maker when some dumbass american shoots his neighbour? Nooo! its the dumbass american mis-using the tool.
George Bush + Linux = "I will not let information get in the way of the fight against Windows"
The parent was good enough to state the distinction in the issue, and attempt to make some sort of semblance of a short argument about it. I suggest that if you want to disagree, you should give some reasons. I know that I'm being offensive and preechy, but I actually kind of agree with you in some respects so I think discussion would be a whole lot better with some actual meat to it.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
In the other case, you are trading some copyrighted work that you already own.
So-called file trading is not trading because you are not giving away your copy of the music -- you still keep "your copy" when you are done so its not actually a trade. Instead, you are creating a second, third, fourth,... copy of the music and distributing it.
It can't be called file sharing either. The traditional notion of sharing implies the highly altruistic act of giving up use of something so that another might use it. With illegal file copying, the owner of the copy of the file gives up nothing but a little bandwidth (which is probably free or nearly so). So its hardly "sharing" in any altruistic sense of letting someone else use the file instead of you.
People should not wrap an illegal activity in false, friendly-sounding words such as "trading" and "sharing." It makes them sound like the politicians that brought us the USA-PATRIOT act and CAN-SPAM act.
My only problem with this is that these identity theives are not getting hit with criminal charges. .001% of the file sharers would have actually bought the content in question). In this case, there is identity theft going on. Identity theft must be cracked down on if we want Mom and Pop to get online.
This is not at all like the AA lawsuits. In the file sharing lawsuits, there was no actual damage, only potential damages (I'd be supprised if
"Do I dare disturb the universe?"
...I don't think Microsoft will accept payment of the judgement by credit card or PayPal.
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
As somebody who believes in private property rights, I think I should be allowed to do whatever I want with my private property (e.g., make copies up the wazoo if I want to), as long as it doesn't violate the safety or rights of someone else.
"Intellectual property" laws violate private property rights. There's no reason to feel guilty about being annoyed with laws that are designed to give control over your private property to someone who you've never signed a contract with.
why is a private company suing people for criminal acts ?
who tf does Microsoft think they are ?
why arn't the Police dealing with it ?
maybe Ford will start suing car thieves next ?
perhaps GlaxoWellcome will start suing drug addicts
maybe Smith&Western will start suing gangsters, its all the same thing
this is a Police/FBI matter, If Microsoft have any evidence then should give it to the police and they can just subopena the ISP's themselves
MS or more specifically the staff that are involved (like their lawyers) are not doing this for free, they are not handing the cash recovered back to the victims, in fact i would argue they have no authority to do anything, vigilantes is the word used when people take the law into their own hands, the RIAA can sue because the accused are not breaking criminal law, theft by deception (which is what phishing is) is a criminal matter and so the police/fbi should be dealing with it
at least if the police was involved society would get any assets recovered, instead the lawyers still get their fat checks and the victims get nothing
would be the same thing, private company taking the law into their own hands, unless fraud is a civil matter now
Hello!
... you know ... a Civil suit ... where a private company or individual sues people for the damages caused by negligence or criminal activity, whether or not they have been found guilty of criminal activity.
... but you are fooling no one but yourself if you think downloading mp3's isn't breaking copyrights. Don't like how RIAA handles things? - Then dont buy, don't download and dont listen to the music they protect. There's plenty of good independant music out there that is free to share.
Dumbass anonymous coward!
MS is afffected by the improper use of their products. It makes fools like you hate MS even more than there is reason to. Are you really so stupid to not see that as a reason for MS to take action? This is the Civil reason for MS to sue
Ford sue car thieves? - Why not? In most areas car theives are released from jail over and over after very little punishment to steal more cars. The authorities do little to help.
Glaxo sue drug addicts? - Why not? the addicts using Glaxo drugs make Glaxo look bad, hurting their reputation and their bottom line, and possibly scaring people away from their drugs who could truly benefit from them.
Do you think the NRA stands idle when people blame guns for the actions of the idiots weilding them?
Yes, I hate the RIAA as much as anyone
George Bush + Linux = "I will not let information get in the way of the fight against Windows"
When I saw this headline in Google News, i was more interested by Bill's old mug shot (car speeding, I think) used as a link to the Bosh article. What a deception when I linked to the Bosh page. "Bill as a thug" has been replaced by "Bill at a press conference". This makes me wonder how Google uses pics for links to news articles.