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Massachusetts Drops Hammer on Spam Gang
karvind writes "According to story on BBC and Yahoo, the Massachusetts attorney general has filed a lawsuit against one of the world's biggest spam gangs. An emergency court order granted under the suit should see the network of websites the spammers ran shut down.
Attorney General Thomas Reilly's civil complaint against alleged ringleader Leo Kuvayev and six other people associated with 2K Services Ltd. and Ecash Pay Ltd.
Offered for sale on the websites were pornography, pills, pirated software and fake fancy watches."
It's nice to see some spammers getting sued rather than some 12 year old girl who downloads MP3s...
This is nice but as long as there is money to made sending spam there will be plenty of border-line companies jumping into the gap to replace others taken down. This isn't going to end until we go after the companies selling their products through the spammers.
In this day and age, if you open an email from someone you don't know and see links and you click them you are not unwittingly doing anything. You are just a nitwit.
Yep - but if you're 'on the road' or even on a pay per minute dial-up connection then receiving this crap costs you money even if you just initially download the headers.
AT&ROFLMAO
This really isn't going to do anything. Spam sites get shut down all the time and spammers have other servers lined up to move to at a moments notice. They're probably back up and operating at a new site already.
Good Lord, who crapped in your cheerios this morning? A couple notes to your tirade:
1) Counterfeit versions of prescription drugs != drugs from Canada; that should be fairly obvious.
2) Clicking on a link that says it will take you to one thing, then takes you to another is most certainly doing something "unwittingly". Whether or not that person is a nitwit is irrelevant.
3) I would absolutely classify shutting down a spam gangs ring of websites as "bringing the hammer down". They are no longer operational, and are in court. The only thing left to do is to convict them and make them pay monetary damages.
Sheesh, mellow out, you should be happy you might actually start getting less spam.
Given the area's high retiree population, this doesnt surprise me. After all, they can pick up their V1agra and c1alis practically right around the corner once the email hits their account!
Read more about it at the Sun Sentinel.
Between tracking sex offenders, fighting for Terri Schiavo, and getting slot machines taxed, theres little room for this on the legislative agenda.
...both interiorlly, and exteriorlly.
As a Mass. resident, I'm thoroughly amused by the local media outlets... I've heard from both WBZ radio and WCVB TV News the story with a lead in saying something like...
"If you live in Massachusetts, you'll be happy to hear you'll be getting less spam now that..."
I'd be curious to see exactly how much spam from these guys was destined to Massachusetts people. Oh hell, don't bother. Borders are so... 1900's...
Peter
Since this basically is an "organized" crime, what's needed is a RICO investigation. RICO (Racketeer-influenced and Corrupt Organizations act) is a special law crafted to fight organized crime. Essentially anyone knowingly involved in a criminal organization or providing it with support can face a shit load of jail time.
One thing spammers DO need are hosting companies, internet service, a certain amount of banking services, and so on. The people providing them with these services need to be investigated as part of a RICO investigation. That alone will have a chilling effect, and there has to be a few prosecutions possible.
Seeing THOSE guys guy down will do a lot to increase the risk of even doing otherwise "legitimate" business with a spammer, and thus the costs will rise even higher to the point where spam will not be profitable.
Stopping people from spamming is impossible; cutting off their air supply isn't. The money goes someplace, and anyone getting a cut needs to start reviewing the glossy brochures for Federal Penetenieries.
Impossible. If you run a server, you get spam. You may filter it out before it hits your inbox, but it still travels down the wire to your box. You should care, spam anywhere costs EVERYBODY.
And I will state again, anyone who clicks a link in any email that came from some unknown original is a fucking nitwit -- regardless of what it claims to be.
The general public is not as educated on the subject as you are. What about some elderly person who just got a computer as a present so that their grandkids can send email. Are they a nitwit because they click on a link that says cheaper prescriptions?
These spammers are predators and this action is a good thing. Just because you are too 'smart' to be fooled by these people doesn't make everyone else a nitwit. Self-righteous geeks really bother me. Remember, it's because most people aren't computer literate or even want to be that keeps us geeks working.
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." - Unknown
I can believe it. There's a lot of very stupid, very naive people in the world who are also very insistent that they're right.
It's hard to argue with these kind of people, mostly because they've developed some kind of reality filter that doesn't let through anything that questions their beliefs. I've always assumed that without the filter, their psyche would collapse under the weight of the truth. You can try to pick away at the filter, but if you suceed they'll only become enraged at your for exposing the truth (and revealing to them their own filter, which they like to ignore).
AccountKiller