Another Major Spammer Busted

Iphtashu Fitz writes "25 year old Christopher William Smith, considered one of the worlds biggest spammers by the Spamhaus Project, is now sitting in a jail without bond. Smith allegedly had a doctor issue 72,000 prescriptions in the space of one year in conjunction with orders obtained through spamming. The doctor, Philip Mach, had a license to practice medicine in New Jersey but he provided prescriptions to people throughout the United States without ever evaluating them, both of which are big no-no's. Federal authorities have already seized over $3 million in cash, luxury cars, and houses."

Comments

Real Crime is Organised

[ackthpt]

From ABC News: A Minnesota man considered one of the world's most prolific e-mail spammers was indicted on more than a dozen federal charges related to the operation of his business, Xpress Pharmacy Direct.

70-80% of my spam used to come from this guy. It seems every time one of these weasels gets hauled in there's a dip in spam. In the past two days my spammage has dropped to a trickle. The past three nights total spam: 173, 43, 17

Also from ABC News: The indictment against Christopher William Smith, 25, was unsealed Wednesday after he was arrested at his home in Prior Lake. Dr. Philip Mach, 47, of Franklin Park, N.J., and Bruce Jordan Lieberman, 45, from Farmingdale, N.Y., were also charged in the indictment, federal prosecutors said.

<Nelson Muntz*>

Ha hah!

</Nelson Muntz>

Smith allegedly had a doctor issue 72,000 prescriptions in the space of one year

Which just goes to prove to be a really big drug dealer you need a computer and connections, not just to hang out in your Accura in McDonald's parking lot late at night.

* Nelson Muntz appears in this posting courtesy Twentieth Century Fox and Matt Groening.

72,000!!

[TurdTapper]

Holy Crap! FTA: Prosecutors allege Smith had Mach issue about 72,000 prescriptions from July 2004 to about May 2005.

Now, I freely admit that I don't have a clue about how prescriptions are handled, but isn't 72,000 prescriptions just a little much? Would't someone have gotten a touch suspicious that this guy was writing them out at a rate of 1 prescription every 7 seconds? Or is there not enough infrastructure to be able to tell how many a doctor has written?

It obviously had to be done electronically (Or else he would have had to write an awful lot). How does that work? I've only ever had prescriptions that were hand written out by the doctor.

I guess I'm just amazed that it took them that long to realize something was wrong.

Re:72,000!!

[Dun Malg]

Considering that the average GP these days spends about 7 actual minutes with each patient, and in some cases prescribes more than one drug per visit, 27 scripts per hour is probably only slightly above the curve. I could easilly see this slipping under the radar if it wasn't for people hunting down the spammer he was working through.

Except, of course, these prescriptions were all for hydrocodone(Vicodin), which the DEA tracks. 27 scripts an hour when most of them are antibiotics or blood pressure meds might go unnoticed, but 27 a day, every day, of the same sched II controlled substance is just asking to be caught.

Wow... look at the headlines.

[Cytlid]

Chinese Websites Used As Launchpads For Cracking
Piracy Not To Blame In Decline of Moviegoers
Another Major Spammer Busted

Who gave those in charge a clue? It seems we're starting to see a paradigm shift... people who really abuse network resources are getting caught!

Re:Good...

[Morgalyn]

I've always wondered about this. Do ERs have some sort of checklist / questions they ask to try and decide who is actually in pain, and who is just looking for the medicine? I was in the ER recently (thought it was appendicitis, was a ruptured cyst in my reproductive system.. so much fun, being a girl) and I had forgotten how many people use the ER for stuff like.. a hangnail, because they have little/no insurance. There was one person there who seemed to be in much more pain when any hospital officials were watching than when they were not. All she said she wanted was a refill of her medications. It made me wonder a little!

Bringing Them to the Attention of the DEA

[s7uar7]

My website gets around 30 hits a minute (from seperate IPs) with fake referrer spam for sites selling prescription drugs. Anything with a drug name in the referrer, Phentermine, Xanax etc, gets an http 302 redirect to dea.gov; the original referrer isn't replaced. Who knows, maybe no one there ever looks at the logs, but if they do there's a few sites they might be interested in.

Not busted for "spamming"

[erroneus]

He was busted for something else right? Something related to illegal drug activity, wire fraud, money laundering...? Stuff like that?

So far, all this does is make "illegal" activities proliferated by spam something that will get you busted....

Hrm... okay so this WILL make a dent in the war on spam. But I would still like to see more people jailed for the activity of spamming rather than for more common reasons.