Twenty years for a phisher

by Chris Gilmer Jan 17th 2007

What's better than spam? How about seeing a man found guilty of operating a phishing scheme face 101 years in prison? A 45 year old man in California was recently found guilty of posing as AOL's billing department and tricking people into giving him their credit card information, by using hacked Earthlink accounts and fraudulent web pages. Under the glorious Can-Spam Act, this guy has been convicted on multiple counts including wire fraud, and misuse of AOL trademark. So if you have noticed a little decrease in the amount of spam in your inbox, most likely it stems from cases like this. The government taking spam issues extremely seriously and laying down the law, it seems as though fewer and fewer spammers and phishers are in operation. Look out for final sentencing information that will be announced on June 11th for this case.

Tags: aol, can-spam, canspam act, CanspamAct, fraud, internet, phishing, scam, security, spam, spammer, trademark

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

OZaC said 9:27AM on 1-17-2007

This is great news to hear. The lack of action on the part of law enforcement to take down these sorts of thugs has no doubt encouraged their activity, not to mention bred them to feel like they have a right to do whatever they please in the name of a dollar. Perhaps now that we're beginning to see real consequences for phishing and spam, the levels will drop. Unfortunately, where there is money to be made, there will always be someone willing to do what it takes to get it.

OZaC said 9:29AM on 1-17-2007

Upon further reflection, is a 101 year prison term in line with the consequences of other fraud-related crimes? 101 years seems a bit excessive.

James said 10:17AM on 1-17-2007

I'm flabbergasted that somebody was actually dumb enough to spam/phish from inside the US. The reason the [SURE, YOU] CAN SPAM Act was such a tempest in a teacup was that most of the spam we get comes from other countries who couldn't give a shit less what their citizens do online, meaning that most spammers would not be subject to its restrictions. Cool that somebody got nabbed, tho. Just a shame we can't have him flayed alive or eaten by fire ants or something.

Fabulo said 8:33PM on 1-17-2007

"it seems as though fewer and fewer spammers and phishers are in operation"

Really? I thought spam volumes have been doubling every 6 month for the last 10 years. When did this happen?

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