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Dumpster-diving for discarded nuggets of information, stealing mail out of
mailboxes, hacking into databases, creating phony web pages that mimic legitimate
e-commerce sites to "phish" for personal information--all are
the standard stock-in-trade of identity thieves. A NY Times writer reports on
all this and more, in an interview with an ID-theft insider in Eugene, Oregon.
See
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/21/magazine/21IDENTITY.html
The state of Virginia has charged a North Carolina man with four counts of
using fraudulent means to send spam. Under the state's new anti-spam law,
this could carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. For details, see
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/0,10801,88176,00.html
On December 3, a federal grand jury issued a 108-count criminal indictment
against 10 members of an illegal Internet operation that used many websites
to sell controlled substances. The group's illegal operations were a major
source of spam. See
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/7407522.htm
After a four-month investigation, Sydney police arrested an Australian man
suspected of being part of a global scam that dupes victims into believing they
can claim a reward for helping recover the foreign assets of the Nigerian president.
For the full story, see
http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,12070,1074069,00.html
Anxious to restore its country's good name, the Nigerian government
is taking steps to deal with the notorious 419 email scam that's been
successfully stealing money from the gullible and the greedy for the past 20
years. See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3241710.stm
Full text of the measure is available at
http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877enrolled.pdf
See http://pub.das.state.or.us/LEG_BILLS/PDFs/ESB910.pdf
A six-month collaborative investigation between Microsoft and New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has led to punitive action against a New York-based spamming ring and its accomplices. On December 18, Spitzer and Microsoft filed parallel lawsuits charging the ring with sending illegal spam through 514 compromised Internet Protocol addresses in 35 countries. For complete details, see
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2003/dec/dec18b_03.html
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2003/dec03/12-18NYSAGandMicrosoftFS.asp
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~joe/syn1.pdf
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~joe/syn2.pdf
In response to recent federal anti-spam legislation, national credit reporting
agency Equifax is cutting staff and closing some facilities in its e-marketing
unit. This action effectively eliminates the company's bulk email products.
See
http://money.cnn.com/2003/12/19/technology/equifax_spam