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International Spam Ring Shut Down

Posted by kdawson on from the spamhaus-top-ten dept.

smooth wombat writes "An international spam ring with ties to Australia, New Zealand, China, India, and the US is in the process of being shut down. Finances of members in the US are being frozen using the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 while the FBI is pursuing criminal charges. The group sent spam advertising male enhancement herbs and other items using a botnet estimated at 35,000 computers, and able to send 10 billion emails per day. The Federal Trade Commission monitored the group's finances and found that they had cleared $400,000 in Visa charges in one month alone."

14 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Jeez you people... by JustNiz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    just stop buying stuff advertised by spam already.

    1. Re:Jeez you people... by ari_j · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I want to punch every one of those assholes who buys products advertised by spam e-mail in his face. I've been saying for years that, if the supply of gullible idiots with credit cards dried up, the spammers would reduce their efforts drastically.

    2. Re:Jeez you people... by moderatorrater · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Quit being a douchebag. Did you see the part where they're capable of sending out billions of emails per day? That they cleared $400,000 in a month? Do the math. If they used .1% of that capacity, it's not even pennies per email. In a way you're right that people should stop sending money to spammers. However, at the numbers we're talking about, people with IQ's less than 75 alone could make these schemes profitable.

    3. Re:Jeez you people... by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sorry but you, on your own, will find a cure for AIDS which involves duct tape and a toothbrush before you get rid of the idiots that buy things from spam email.

    4. Re:Jeez you people... by fermion · · Score: 4, Insightful
      The supply will never dry up.

      Look at the current banking crisis. Bankers, realtors, appraisers, all conspiring to convince some gullible idiot that he or she can afford to not only buy a house 3X their yearly income, but said house would become a magic money machine. The ARM mortgage would be no problem because the laws of conservation no longer existed, and the double digit growth in value would continue forever, and the house could be sold at a profit at any point.

      Then there were the gullible idiots who bought the magical risk free packaged investments based on the magical mortgages. These magical financial instruments were another guaranteed trove of never ending money generation.

      Of course, like spammers, the only people who made money were the criminals, and, like spammers, should be in jail.

      The flaw in your logic is easy money is that only thing that makes people stupid faster than easy sex. Tell people that a magic fairy will give them money, and most will believe it. That is why our presidential candidates primary sources of income, alcohol and gambling, are so lucrative.

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    5. Re:Jeez you people... by amRadioHed · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And if pig's could fly...

      The OP's point was pointless. An astoundingly small percentage of the population responds to Spam. There is no way imaginable to magically stop every single ignorant, insecure, chump with a credit card from using it for herbal penis pills.

      --
      We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
    6. Re:Jeez you people... by 1u3hr · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Really - if it was as simply as following the money then do you think we wouldn't have nailed spam by now?

      When have police even tried to "follow the money"? The amounts in each case are far below the threshold for them to take in interest. Only in a very few cases, so rare that they make headlines, do they make even a token effort to investigate. And maybe one or two spammers a year get charged. The FBI apparently thinks it's more important to have agents pretending to be teenage girls to entrap lonely shlubs in chatrooms than to pay the slightest attention to spammers. And corporations lobby the government to PREVENT any effective laws against spam, so they can do it.

      I maintain it IS easy to "follow the money" and catch enough spammers to put some fear into them. Now, they have not the slightest care in the world.

    7. Re:Jeez you people... by jcr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Maybe to apply for a credit card, instead of beiing age>=18*, there should be a gullible test.

      There already is. The consumer credit companies want the most gullible customers they can find, so they can hit them with double-digit interest rates.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    8. Re:Jeez you people... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And if pig's could fly...

      The OP's point was pointless. An astoundingly small percentage of the population responds to Spam. There is no way imaginable to magically stop every single ignorant, insecure, chump with a credit card from using it for herbal penis pills.

      We could lace the herbal penis pills with cyanide. Then they'd only buy once.

    9. Re:Jeez you people... by jimmyhat3939 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The thing that confuses me is there are less than 10B people in the world. So.....

      --
      Free Conference Call -- No Spam, High Quality
    10. Re:Jeez you people... by rtb61 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      It is pretty obvious that the campaign to discredit spam has succeed, did you not pick up on "Mega-D botnet -- named after one of its pill products -- was made up of 35,000 computers and could send 10 billion e-mail messages a day". The botnet is now necessary to send spam upon any significant basis, otherwise their ISP will suspend their account and if their ISP fails to do this, then the ISP will finds all of it's email blocked.

      The botnet represent criminal activity that goes far beyond sending spam and involves real significant penalties. It would seem the focuses now needs to shift beyond spam, to detecting the botnets, shutting them down and prosecuting the individuals who created them. How quickly this can be done will have a real impact upon spam, focusing upon the victims of spam and targeting them with derogatory comments really is of no benefit.

      People with a sharper intellect and a more extension knowledge base, really have to understand and accept the 40 IQ points really does make for a significant difference of understanding and comprehension. So in creating a complex technological system, it falls upon the more intellectual specialised creators of the system, to ensure the system is sufficiently safe and easy to use for those individuals who are limited in their intellectual focus to the basic day to day use of those technological systems without having the the desire or sufficient time to learn all those intricacies of effective use.

      If the average user can, they basically would use computers as effectively skilled users.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  2. Re:Fines for those in NZ by tulmad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A $200k fine for people involved in a business doing $400k/month in transactions. Yup, that'll teach 'em!

    --
    "In case of emergency, break glass. Scream. Bleed to death."
  3. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  4. So, this botent TFA speaks of... by Chris+Tucker · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...How many machines were running Mac OS or Linux/Unix?

    How many were running Windows?

    To quote Adam Savage: "Well, THERE'S your problem!"

    --
    Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!