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Spam King Busted by Secret Service

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the we're-going-to-have-to-ask-you-to-come-with-us dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Adam Vitale, aka Batch1 aka Baxter, 25, of Boynton Beach, FL, and his partner Todd Moeller, aka M3rk, of New Jersey, are accused of sending nearly 50,000 pieces of spam e-mail to more than 1.2 million AOL subscribers. US Secret Service agents used a confidential informant to hire Moeller and Vitale to deliver spam, which advertised a computer security product."

6 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. Mugshot by XorNand · · Score: 4, Informative

    The poor (rich?) sap's booking photo, complete with ::gulp:: his address. Too bad spammers aren't required to disclose their email address on arrest.

    --
    Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
  2. Re:Secret Service? by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 4, Informative

    Check here to see all the duties of the Secret Service....among them, you will find:

    • Investigating credit and debit card fraud, computer fraud, and electronic fund transfer fraud
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    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

  3. You don't understand what "entrapment" means. by NDPTAL85 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Entrapment means causing someone to do something they would not normally do in order to get them to break the law. This "service" that the spammers were offering was their daily business. It was their regular mode of operation. All the Secret Service did was send an informant in undercover to pose as a customer. Thus there was no entrapment, this is basic policework.

    --
    Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
  4. I'm smiling as I picture: by Hosiah · · Score: 3, Funny

    our new hero in a jail cell with a bunch of cell mates who have all enlarged their penis, ordered Viagra, and are looking for a new relationship.

  5. Re:Oohhhh! by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 4, Insightful
    So, let us say I am a spammer. And I pay an ISP company to host my mail, etc. And then I pay another company for DNS. Then I start mass-mailing - how is the ISP supposed to know I am doing illegal spam? How do they know my lists are not legitimate spam lists? They really can't. You hit the spammers - they are the only ones who know for sure if what they are doing is legal or not legal.
    The ISP knows because he is getting zillions of spam complaints by people you are sending your shit to.

    There is no such thing as a legitimate "spam list". Spam lists are **ALWAYS** full of unwitting recipients. Legitimate mailing-lists, on the other hand, only have addresses of people who have specifically requested to be included in **YOUR** (and YOURS alone - there is no such thing as a "legitimate" purchased list, because the people there HAVE NOT requested to be on it) mailing list.

    They know that your lists are legitimate mailing lists because every single person on them have requested to be on them, and for the eventual complaint that seeps through, you can PROVE that the person has requested to be on it, because you have DUTIFULLY kept the actual request ON FILE.

  6. Re:Cell Location:M-S-08-B-22U-B by Mercano · · Score: 4, Funny

    I hope, for his sake, his cellmate hasn't been taking some of the other pills this guy was selling. On second thought, I hope he has.

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    #include <signature.h>