Slashdot Mirror
Spammer Faces Decades In Prison For Sending More Than 1 Million Spam Emails (suntimes.com)
mi quotes a report from Chicago Sun-Times: A man has been indicted on federal fraud charges for allegedly sending more than a million spam emails. The indictment charges 36-year-old Michael Persaud of Scottsdale, Arizona, with 10 counts of wire fraud and seeks the forfeiture of four computers, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office. The indictment was returned Dec. 9, 2016, and was unsealed after Persaud was arrested last month in Arizona. Between 2012 and 2015, Persaud used multiple IP addresses and domains to send spam emails over at least nine networks, including several servers in Chicago, according to the indictment. He sent more than a million spam emails to people in the U.S. and abroad, using false names to register domains and creating fraudulent "from address" fields to conceal the fact that he was the one sending the emails. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
mi leaves us with some rather unpleasant imagery, writing: "Personally, I wish [the sentence] carried removal of 1 square millimeter of skin for each message instead."
mi leaves us with some rather unpleasant imagery, writing: "Personally, I wish [the sentence] carried removal of 1 square millimeter of skin for each message instead."
A good beginning.
Consider how much life this man was wasted... probably in the aggregate several lifetimes... his sentence should roughly equal the number human hours he has wasted.
I don't like spammers either, but you need professional psychiatric help as soon as possible, seriously, you've lost touch with your humanity.
He was arrested and is out on bond, it's a long way from a conviction. And, Thailand might be looking good to him right now.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Come on now, bro, all the one guy did was kill someone.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
his sentence should roughly equal the number human hours he has wasted.
No it shouldn't. The "lock em' up" mentality is why America has more than four times the incarceration rate of either China or Russia, and an even more disproportionate rate compared to almost any other country. Prison should be used to isolate irredeemably violent people from civilized society. For everyone else, there are better alternative punishments. For instance, this guy could be sentenced to spend 60 hours per week cleaning bedpans at a nursing home for the next 10 years, or some other suitable punishment where he can contribute to society rather than being a drain.
1 million is such a small number these days.
Assuming it takes on average 10 seconds to identify and delete the email; some people are slower, the average slashdot user is faster, that's 116 days the guy wasted. Nice try though.
While in prison, he should be given a diet of nothing but a certain fine Hormel product.
Just sayin'.
10 counts?
If he sent 1 million fraudulent emails, why isn't it 1 million counts?
OK, I don't like spammers any more than anyone else does, but this "mi" person is just making the news industry look bad with this type of evil bias.
I don't ever want to hear Trump say that he hates how biased Slashdot is....
Who was paying this guy?
That's who should be locked up.
BUT
That will never happen.
They will just find another stooge to do their dirty work.
No, it's not. I'm thinking it's a little light.
And who pays for his survival while he is doing his good deeds. You are clueless as the rest.
You are aware we have for profit prisons ?
He is going to be doing something.
Where I work, the average employee receives nearly two hundred thousand spam messages per day.
Something is off -- I'm on many public mailing lists, git logs and so on, yet I see ~600 rejects per day, and my email server has a few other users. So either your company is a juicy target for a specific kind of fraud, or your number was obtained by scientific rectal extraction.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
How'd you get away?
Dissent was never patriotic, it was just accepted as a by product of freedom. Now however PC hypocrisy seems to override all things.
The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should therefore be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated. If the doctrine be admitted, rulers have only to declare war and they are screened at once from scrutiny In war, then, as in peace, assert the freedom of speech and of the press. Cling to this as the bulwark of all our rights and privileges. - William Ellery Channing (1780-1842)
If dissent at a time of war is to be ennobled as a principle of democracy, then surely dissent at a time of peace deserves the same treatment.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
the punishment is a way too excessive.
Locking people up and throwing away the keys like this should be reserved for murderers, rapists, arsonists, robbers, burglars, politicians, Madoff types, and maybe a handful of others.
This is just wasting jail space, costing us money, and destroying lives.
TFA is quite light on details, and let's remind ourselves that the trial hasn't happened yet. Nevertheless, he may very well be a "Madoff-type." If the defendant was complicit in perpetrating (e-)mail fraud, with the result that people were bilked out of money, then hard time is appropriate.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Where I work, the average employee receives nearly two hundred thousand spam messages per day.
Something is off -- I'm on many public mailing lists, git logs and so on, yet I see ~600 rejects per day, and my email server has a few other users. So either your company is a juicy target for a specific kind of fraud, or your number was obtained by scientific rectal extraction.
This. OP is prevaricating. Nobody experiences spamming on an individual basis with that frequency.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Without gender.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Only question to ask: Who paid you?
Then recourse.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You low-life bastard.
The election is over. The criminal slimeball you have a hard-on for lost, so you can be happy now. Hillary is no longer relevant.
Unfortunately, in the process of Hillary losing, Trump won. That sucks but oh well. He's done a couple good things, maybe he'll do more. Anyway, the election is over and he's President for the next four years.
In three years it'll be time to talk about candidates again. Hopefully we'll have a good one. Until then, let's talk about news for nerds, stuff that matters.
A privileged college students gets caught in the act (by two other students) raping an unconscious woman, and gets out in what, 3 months? Spammers are annoying obviously, but decades for that...? I just don't get it.
'The unexamined life is not worth living' - Socrates
It's funny 'cause it's rape!
Prison numbers have been driven by minimum mandatory sentences for drug offenses since the 90's, not a "lock 'em up" mentality.
It's the same thing
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
People who pull off Ponzi schemes rarely spend that much time in prison. Why would a spammer have to? Usually the people behind the Ponzi schemes do very well for themselves financially before being caught, while the spammers are generally eking out an upper-middle-class existence.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have much pity for the spammers but I don't see justification in grave prison sentences for them either.
If we really want to say we believe in criminal rehabilitation, this is a prime opportunity for it. The spammers could work to right the wrongs they committed. They could be put to work developing better tools to stop spam - and not just more lousy filters. This guy got into spam for the money, have him show how the money moves so that the government and NGOs can work to reduce the profit margin of spamming. When it ceases to be profitable, the volume will crash as it won't be worth the effort for most spammers.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
http://ars.userfriendly.org/ca...
I've got better things to do tonight than die.
I made the same comment above, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to how people are sentenced in the US.
By the way, the drunk woman was actually unconscious, and the guy was caught in the act by 2 other students --- how that equates with only 6 months (he got let out in 3 actually) is beyond me.
'The unexamined life is not worth living' - Socrates
yep, like this piece of shit http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/02/...
'The unexamined life is not worth living' - Socrates
sanford wallace
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanford_Wallace
got 2 1/2 years for a decade of spamming has maybe over a billion dollars in fines/previous lawsuits over the years. a true human scum bag. but the guy from this artiels is scum also but a flea in a sea of spammers.
Jack of all trades,master of none
Are you a fucking low life spammer too? So it seems...
I obtained a $3.9M million judgment against him back in 2015. I identified over 5,000 e-mails transmitted by him using domain names obtained by fraud from NameCheap. That does not include e-mails using e-mails utilizing other domain name registrars.
I suspect that the number of spam identified by the FBI / DOJ is based upon the hosting providers that were identified in the indictment. I suspect that Persaud used IP space that was from registrars outside the USA to send spam that were not addressed by the current indictment.
Maybe the prosecutors thought that 10 counts at 20 years each is sufficient. If he gets 200 years, why do the extra work?
Fight Spammers!
A truer measure of freedom of speech and democracy would be harder to find than the ability to criticize publicly the policies and actions of a government. I may not agree with your point of view but I will defend your right to voice it.
I was responding to Mir's sig file specifically but your comments are spot on.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Yeah? And what about when he doesn't report to his "job?" Then what? He still hasn't done anything violent, so we still apparently shouldn't put him in jail.
Tell the other prisoners he was spamming them...He will be very popular.
I wish they gave a ballpark figure. Because 1 million seems quite low over 3 years. As someone I know used send 1 million SMS messages a day..
That's what I was thinking. A million emails is what percentage of the current number of spams? Maybe .000000000000000000000001%
Do they offer remedial arithmetic in your city?
I would prefer that the punishment be an opportunity for any recipient of any of the mail messages sent be allowed to literally give the jackass an electric shock, each varying in intensity to keep him from becoming accustomed to the shock.
I was initially thinking each person be allowed a punch to jackass' face or gut, but damage may occur and that's unfair ;)
No, I'm not joking. I wish fucking asshats like this paid for their "gains" in equal pain and suffering for all combined, unwilling recipients.
Hey, severe punishment is used in other countries and we're seen in the USA to be "too civilized" to resort to such measures. On the other hand, the ones that wish to commit crimes know that they're doing so in a manner where the outcome won't be unimaginable and ruin them for life. I should shut up. I'll just summarize it with "I wish I were allowed to be on the appeals jury because you KNOW that's coming."
Unfortunately the remaining US spammers are hardcore recidivists who have repeatedly demonstrated that once released they will continue their activities as soon as they think they can get away with it.
Many already have a number of other convictions for assorted white collar and violent crimes by the time they're apprehended for spamming and virtually all think they have a god-given right to spam and that the authorities are impeding their rights to free speech (the idea of tresspass to chattels and "free speech ends at the mailserver operator's private system" slide off like water off a duck's back)
Look at Sanford Wallace. He never actually stopped spamming despite the claims, just got better at covering his tracks.
i mentioned trespass to chattels and the "free speech" aspects because the first was what was eventually used to secure his first conviction for spamming and the second (along with tortuious interference with contracts) was what he attempted to use in lawsuits to force operators to stop blocking his email - these arguments fell flat on their face in court (thankfully), however a a result he pioneered spamming vis other people's mailservers (relaying attacks) and directly cost many people and companies worldwide hundreds of millions of dollars in excess bandwidth fees precipitating the inevitable locking down and balkanisation of the Internet that's been happening ever since. (Disclosure: Sanford cost me $5000 in one month alone with the total losses in excess of $50k over a 2 year period before email systems with the ability to prevent unauthorised relaying were deployable. I'd quite happily repeatedly bang his gonads between a couple of housebricks for a few days)
Yes, the "lock-em-up" mentality is a problem (it's primarily a systematic way of disenfranchising substantial portions of the population from voting rights - something that the UNCHR has repeatedly ruled is a rights breach, but the US continues to ignore) , however in the case of recidivist sociopaths (and they are invariably sociopaths), there are strong arguments in favour of doing so in order to prevent their economic crimewave from ever resuming. The sheer scale of economic damage that these criminals can inflict, distributed across the Internet is sufficient justification for doing so. (back in 2001, AT&T were forced to spend $60million for an emergency server buildout to cope with ONE spam attack. This isn't "a few cents here and a few cents there" - and in any case that kind of distributed economic crime has previously been punished quite severely by US courts in the past.)
Considering the overall scale of the economic crime of spamming, hard time is justified anyway.
In order to even _make_ the radar of enforcement authorities a spammer needs to be churning out billions of messages per day - which equates to distributed damage totals of tens of millions of dollars per year, with occasional spikes in damages when the scale of the attack overwhelms individual systems.
Wire fraud charges for anything related to what the spammer is peddling are simply a bonus. - As an accomplice to (and beneficiary of) the criminal enterprise, there are joint culpability statutes already on the books that cover this even if the spammer is "only sending the email".
$orkplace (a university department) has 250 staff and 4 years ago we were rejecting 200-500 delivery attempts PER MINUTE due to DNSBL hits (it was 10 times higher than that before I allowed the sennders to get to RCPT TO stage. so I believe this number is valid). Compare and contrast with total legitimate email volume of around 10,000 messages per day (in and out).
Email is now centralised and farmed out. I understand the central servers are seeing upwards of 3 million DNSBL rejects per day, with the Baysian filters catching another million or so.
Email addresses I've had for 20+ years are completely useless due to spamload. The moment I make the MX valid, crud starts pouring in - and that's despite the fact that most haven't been used since the turn of the century.