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."

Comments

How does spam STILL work??

[alecks]

I am still baffeld at how and why SPAM still works?!?! Everyone i know complains about spam, even the most non-technical people... Yet, apparently, some of them still go and buy stuff...

I'd be very curious to see some figures on how much money was spent on spam-started purchases last year....

Drops what, a tiny plastic hammer?

[Kainaw]

FTA: So far no formal charges have been filed against Mr Kuvayev and his colleagues who are thought to be behind the two companies, 2K Services Ltd and Ecash Pay Ltd, that sent all the spam.

So, what did they do? They filed a restraining order to have the websites shut down. A RESTRAINING ORDER AGAINST A WEBSITE!?!?!?

FTA: Two phone numbers for Kuvayev and 2K Services in Canada were disconnected

So, he disconnected his phones and moved. How long until he sets up shop again?

Re:So who will win the PR war

[suwain_2]

I don't know about in New York, but it's been speculated that Reilly's going to run for governor of Massachusetts in the next election.

Something like this might look really good in a campaign.

I know people who buy things from Spam

[doublem]

I disagree. I knew a couple of people at my former job who actually bought things that were sent to them as SPAM. One coworker bought a "Digital Camera" that had no LCD and about 2 megs of internal RAM. The software for manging the thing was full of spyware. Without the software you couldn't get pictures off it, and without the spyware, the camera management software ceased functioning, so he decided to leave the malware on his work computer. The Network Admin actually got a dressing down from the company's owner for uninstalling the spyware and thus "Breaking Dick's camera" in the process.

I tried to talk to the guy about buying things from Spam. He and the other staffer who bought junk like that compared it to buying things from mail order catalogs. "We can't stop those either, and they're harder to get rid of then just hitting the 'delete' button."

When A----- said, "If it was a scam the police would shut them down" followed by a glare that made it clear she thought I was an idiot.

A----- later had problems with a credit card number being stolen. I asked her if it was the same card she'd used to buy the camera. I was treated to a 15 minute tirade insisting I was paranoid.

People buy things from Spam, and have no problems with doing so.