|
|
Australia: An Australian judge sentenced the self-proclaimed ringleader of a major 419 scam operating out of Sydney to more than five years for scamming millions of dollars from victims worldwide. For details, see
In another 419-related case in Melbourne, a 58-year-old financial planner faces the possibility of a stiff prison sentence for defrauding his clients of over $1 million. See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/19/aussie_419_victim/
The Netherlands: In an effort to quickly expel 419 scammers operating within its borders, the Netherlands is opting for deportation over prosecution as the method of choice. In a recent raid in October, Amsterdam police arrested 21 illegal immigrants from Nigeria and Sierra Leone who were running a 419 operation. See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/08/419_scammers_deported/
California: Two Pleasant Hill, California, residents have been arrested on suspicion of having swindled relatives and friends in a variation of the 419 scam. For details, see http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/crime_courts/10520544.htm?1
Stating that it wasn't clear that the new federal anti-spam ("CAN-SPAM") law had been violated, a federal judge rejected the guilty plea of a former AOL software engineer accused of stealing millions of AOL clients' email addresses to sell to spammers. The sticking point for the judge was whether or not the "deception" requirement of the law had been met in this case. See http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/10468604.htm
Ohio legislators recently passed a bill imposing criminal penalties on spammers who practice fraud and deception to entrap unsuspecting consumers. Modeled after the federal CAN-SPAM Act (http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.html) but with tougher penalties, the bill is expected to be signed into law by Governor Bob Taft. See http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5472453.html
In November, a brother and sister were convicted under a Virginia anti-spam law for bombarding AOL subscribers with hundreds of thousands of junk emails. The first felony prosecution of Internet spam distributors by Virginia prosecutors, this conviction was preceded by a successful federal prosecution against Howard Carmack, the "Buffalo Spammer," who was sentenced to seven years in prison last May. See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/04/sibling_spammers_convicted/
CIS Internet Services, a small ISP serving Iowans in and around the town of Clinton, was awarded damages of $1 billion in a "John Doe" lawsuit against three spammers who jammed the network with as many as 10 million mass mailings a day. See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/20/isp_wins_1bn_damages_from_spammers/
Spammers are using automated scripts to bombard weblogs with comment spam, also known as link spam. As a result, web servers--especially those in shared hosting environments--have been seriously slowed, and some providers have disabled comments on the popular Movable Type (MT) blogging tool while MT publisher Six Apart works on software fixes. See http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2004/12/17/hosts_disable_movable_type_as_comment_spam_slows_servers.html
Peter Francis Clifford Macrae, who made the SpamHaus register list as one of the top spammers worldwide, has added blackmail, fraud, and criminal damage to his rap sheet of online scams. See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/20/more_charges_for_uk_spammer/
On December 21, Microsoft Corporation filed its 88th lawsuit since beginning its agressive antispam war last year ("Microsoft Takes Stands Against Spam..." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41592-2004Sep22.html ). This latest suit claims a civil judgment of $7.4 million against a Tucson man who tried to promote his Internet business with a barrage of unsolicited emails). See http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/dailystar/55002.php