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'Spam King' Sanford Wallace Sentenced To 2.5 Years In Prison For Facebook Phishing Scam (bbc.com)
Xochil writes: Sanford Wallace gets a two-year prison term and $310K fine on charges of fraud and criminal contempt for sending over 27 million spam messages to Facebook users. Sanford Wallace has made a name for himself over the course of the last several years. In 1998, the "Spam King" announced he would put an end to spamming on his part, instead resorting to a new scheme in which ISPs would be paid to receive the mail. Flash forward to 2004, the Associated Press reported that a judge issued a temporary restraining order against Wallace for alleged spyware distribution. Last August, Wallace admitted to compromising around 500,000 Facebook accounts, using them to send over 27 million spam messages through Facebook's servers, between November 2008 and March 2009. While he could have been sentenced to as many as 16 years in prison, he was only sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison and five years of supervised release. In addition, Wallace was ordered to pay about one cent for every message sent or about 60 cents per account compromised, totaling $310,628.55 in restitution. The phishing scam consisted of Wallace automating the process of signing into a Facebook user's account, retrieving a list of their friends and sending them each a message that encouraged them to log into a website. The website would trick users into divulging their Facebook username and password before directing them to an affiliate website that would pay him for the traffic.
You know, any high school kid that demonstrates it knows more about computers than the average CIO and hacks a server that was secured as well as a barndoor with a hay stack in front of it gets some verdict where he can't get near a computer any time soon.
Why is that waste of oxygen still allowed near anything using electricity?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Well I'm going to call it a good day. I've been waiting 15 years to hear this news.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
Let's hope it involves daily beat-downs and extended stays in the prison infirmary.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
in prison. Now let's hope legislation allows us to say no to telemarketing and shoving unsolicited advertisement and "mail" into our mail boxes as well. It's just as criminal, IMO.
should be more like 25.
Sounds like a great nickname for him!
Do it enough and we can get it Google bombed!
Sanford "Spamford" Wallace
Who pooped in your breakfast cereals?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Actually, when it's out on parole, restricted computer access is part of the conditions.
seriously. How is that not half a million CFAA violations?
Yeah but I found myself waffling on who to root for, Facebook or Spamford. Pretty rough indictment of Facebook but they've been caught plenty of times violating privacy (citation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook) and other shitty stuff.
Bottom line is they're both nasty sauce.
Captcha: serpents
And how, exactly, is restricted computer access going to prevent him from going right back to his old tricks? Not only has he proven time and time again that he has no intention of stopping, he doesn't even need to be in the same room as a computer because all he's doing is paying other people to send out spam for him. No, the only thing that might work is sending some of his employees to prison because they're just as guilty as he is.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
You know, any high school kid that demonstrates it knows more about computers than the average CIO and hacks a server that was secured as well as a barndoor with a hay stack in front of it gets some verdict where he can't get near a computer any time soon.
Why is that waste of oxygen still allowed near anything using electricity?
What I don't understand is once you've discovered your "business model" doesn't work you don't take what you've learned and try to sell your skills in a way that does't get you in trouble? even if your "skills" aren't viewed as particularly good by people who are techies you still could sell your knowledge about spam and how to fight it to corporations. He was one of the early spammers who who had notoriety when other's didn't and could have capitalized on that; after all along with the "Green Card Lottery" spammers was one of the early persons to capitalize on spam's potential. Others made the leap to being a consultant after being hammered by the law; follow Frank Abagnale's need and sell the ability to stop others from doing what you do. Maybe because it's hard for some people to admit they're wrong and get their kicks from beating the system?
It's not that different form going from being in government to being a lobbyist and helping people negotiate working with government to get what they want, or working in a field and then using the knowledge you gain to help others compete in the same field. Ethics side, that may not be viewed as a good way to make money but it beats prison, especially since you have your former adversaries now on your side.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Sanford Wallace?
Back in the day one of Spamford's companies was driving me insane at home. A bit of detective work turned up a corporate contact number which actually turned out to be legit.
I was working IT for a telemarketing company at the time, and was also responsible for scheduling the outbound calls (and could monitor them as well). I temporarily modified the outbound calling unit so that number got a call every three seconds or so. At first they were indifferent, then they got angry, then finally they began PLEADING for the calls to stop because it was interfering with their business.
Absolutely hilarious. I laughed so hard that I hurt for a week. :)
Hope he gets his asshole stretched out
is Mr Spam
Seems low for large scale hacking & organized crime.
Oh well, I guess Siegel is already dead, and Canter got disbarred. But still.
Lord Shojo says it best: "As long as the people at the table see a fellow player across from them, they'll tolerate you. A crooked player is a pain in the ass, but someone who refuses to play at all makes them start questioning their own lives and people HATE to think. They'd rather lose to a cheater than dwell too long on why they're playing in the first place."
You and me, we aren't players because we have no cards. Drug lords aren't players because they break the rules openly and flaunt it. Wallace, on the other hand, is a sleazy businessman, so the courts give him the "bad dog!" treatment. The system takes care of its own, and screw everyone else.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
The flaw in your reasoning is assuming the business model doesn't work when in fact it does work. It's difficult, it's annoying, and many times it's illegal, but if this stuff didn't have a return better than many other jobs then it would indeed stop.
When I say...
LART that pinhead.
I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
Who's the money going to anyway?
Spamford is one of those career criminals who has proven, over and over and over again, that he will never "go straight", that the moment he is released, he will go back to committing criminal acts. At some point, you have to say "That does it, we've given you a whole lot of chances which you treated with pure sociopathic contempt. Now you go in a cell, and you never get out. Never."