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Man Threatened Spam Attack In $200,000 Extortion Plot

Posted by samzenpus on from the can't-believe-this-didn't-work dept.

52-year-old Anthony Digati was arrested for trying to extort $200,000 from an insurance firm by threatening to spam them with six million emails unless they paid up. Digati said he would use a spam service and his amazing talents as a "huge social networker" to drag the company "through the muddiest waters imaginable" and presumably unfriend everyone. He added that the price would increase to $3 million if they failed to pay up by Monday, according to federal authorities.

13 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Mafia? by natehoy · · Score: 5, Funny

    "That's an awfully nice looking email server you've got there. It'd be a shame if something happened to it."

    --
    "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  2. 6 million spam messages? by Em+Emalb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Also known as Tuesday.

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    Sent from your iPad.
    1. Re:6 million spam messages? by natehoy · · Score: 3, Funny

      Tuesday. In the morning. From 8:15 AM to 8:25 AM. On a slow day.

      Seems kinda more "Doctor Evil" than actual evil, doesn't it?

      "I demand.." [brings pinkie to lip] ".. one MILLION dollars."
      [collective governments of the world laugh with relief]

      --
      "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  3. Hire him. by ookabooka · · Score: 4, Funny

    If I were the company, I would have hired him for PR and marketing department.

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    If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
  4. How the worm has turned!!! by retardpicnic · · Score: 5, Funny

    I had a similar thing happen with CD of the month club. I dunno whats worse, paying them the money to quit hounding me about our "contract"... or owning a Nickleback CD.....

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    sig loading.......
    1. Re:How the worm has turned!!! by JustOK · · Score: 3, Insightful

      owning the CD isn't as bad as playing it.

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      rewriting history since 2109
  5. Target selection FAIL by dontmakemethink · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Might want to avoid extortion targets who are very well experienced, staffed, and funded in risk analysis.

    --

    War as we knew it was obsolete
    Nothing could beat complete denial
    - Emily Haines
    1. Re:Target selection FAIL by Entropius · · Score: 4, Funny

      Reminds me of those Somali pirates that decided it would be a good idea to try to hijack a French corvette. Once they started shooting the French said "Welp, okay" and blew them out of the water.

    2. Re:Target selection FAIL by ookabooka · · Score: 4, Informative

      According to the article at the register. He included his email addres and phone while talking about how evil and vindictive he is. He either didn't have the capacity to make rational decisions or never intended to succeed. Since he was also already in debt 1.2 mil and made his demand precisely 4x his life insurance premium that he was unhappy with I'm thinking it was a little of both.

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  6. Better article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here's a Register link to avoid the slimy popups on the linked Fox news site:

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/08/cyber_extortion_charges/

  7. OMG! by oldhack · · Score: 5, Funny

    The dude did manage to drag the company through slashdot - there is no water muddier.

    --
    Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
  8. Cue Dr. Evil Pinky... by hal2814 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dr. Evil: If you don't pay up we're going to send out...
    [pinky to corner of mouth] ...6 MILLION emails.

    Number Two: Don't you think we send out *more* than six million emails? Six million emails isn't exactly a lot of spam these days. Virtucon alone gets over 9 billion spam messages per day!

  9. After reading . . by G00F · · Score: 4, Informative

    1. He wasn't going to spam their email servers, he was going to spam the world to smear their name "drag your company name and reputation, through the muddiest waters imaginable".

    2. Looks like he wanted a resolution to the problems he was having because he felt they where doing him wrong. A little different than pure extortion. Basically a "You do me right, or I will tell the whole world of how your wrong me"

    He started it would cost them millions to undo what he would do to the companies reputation and that he was very mad at them. This may not be as clear cut a case as the summary makes it.

    Now to be honest, I also read it here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/08/cyber_extortion_charges/

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