Spammer Faces Decades In Prison For Sending More Than 1 Million Spam Emails (suntimes.com)

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Spammer Faces Decades In Prison For Sending More Than 1 Million Spam Emails (suntimes.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Friday February 10, 2017 @12:45PM from the spam-and-eggs dept.

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."

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Good! by nospam007 · 2017-02-10 12:49 · Score: 4, Insightful

A good beginning.
1. Re:Good! by alvinrod · 2017-02-10 13:47 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Now Mr. Persaud will get to enjoy the feeling of loads of unsolicited male in his inbox.
2. Re:Good! by Dutch+Gun · 2017-02-10 14:13 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Wait!... You don't think the punishment may be a bit... draconian?!!! What is wrong with you people?
  The headline is inaccurate clickbait, which unfortunately, seems to be happening a lot more with Slashdot lately.
  That the maximum sentence based on the law - 10 counts of wire fraud of 20 years each. He's not going to be sentenced for 200, or even 20 years. Sentences anywhere from one to four years seems to be the norm for similar spam-related cases.
  
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  Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
3. Re:Good! by KiloByte · 2017-02-10 14:45 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  You don't think the punishment may be a bit... draconian?!!!
  The numbers are the max allowed for that indictment, sentences that spammers get are a ridiculously low fraction of that.
  I do think spamming should be punished harsher than murder, as the cost for the society is greater. Somehow people underestimate the harm if it is spread among many people. Like: you build a coal power plant that reduces the lives of 100k people by a year each -- you've committed the equivalent of more than 1000 murders, yet don't even get a fine for that.
  On the other hand, I find the count of "more than 1 million spam emails" to be suspicious. A decade ago, spam response rate was 1 in 12.5M, and I'd expect it to be way lower today. A spammer doesn't spam "for the evulz", he spams because it is profitable. A billion mails per campaign is a low figure, and a spammer doesn't build the infrastructure for just a single run.
  
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  The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Re:Maybe I'm getting old... by ShanghaiBill · 2017-02-10 13:14 · Score: 4, Insightful

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.
Re:As much as I loathe spammers... by ClickOnThis · 2017-02-10 15:35 · Score: 4, Insightful

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.

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If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
I don't get US sentencing... by Morpeth · 2017-02-10 20:14 · Score: 3, Insightful

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.

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'The unexamined life is not worth living' - Socrates
Re: !Good by ferret4 · 2017-02-10 23:11 · Score: 3, Insightful

It's funny 'cause it's rape!