Over 100 Arrested in U.S. Spam Crackdown

[mobilebadboy]

I know it's small in the grand scheme of things, but it's news.



WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department has made a series of arrests against purveyors of e-mail "spam" as part of a nationwide crackdown against Internet scam artists, a marketing group said Wednesday.

The Direct Marketing Association, which has put up $500,000 to help the FBI and Justice Department with the probe, said in a statement that the arrests stem from a year long investigation intended to "engender greater trust and comfort in legitimate e-mail communications."

Details of "Operation Slam Spam" were expected to be announced Thursday, according to the marketing group and a federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Justice Department officials declined to comment.

The investigation involves more than 100 arrests, search warrants and other enforcement actions, such as subpoenas.

Many of the cases involve "phishing," which are e-mails that appear to be from financial institutions and other legitimate businesses but are actually fraudulent. They are used to induce people to provide credit card numbers and other personal information.

Other cases in the crackdown involve pornography and use of spam, or unsolicited e-mails, to infect computers with viruses that can obtain personal data or be used by a hacker to further spread the virus.

Congress last year passed a law making fraudulent and deceptive e-mail practices a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. Industry groups say spam e-mail accounts for almost three-quarters of the e-mail in the United States and costs consumers and businesses as much as $10 billion a year.

[incka]

As long as they don't get people who are obeying the law who send out mass email to a newsletter I think it's good.

[r2d2]

Im sure they will handle harmless newsletters differently to emails clearly aimed at enabling fraud. Alhough, any unsolicited email is illegal now isnt it?

[incka]

Newsletters are solicited. A lot of the ads you get in your email is solicited.

[Chris]

What is illegal is spam that has spoofed headers.

[incka]

I must admit I almost fell for one of the paypal-fake-things, but when I saw a Citibank one above it I realised it must be fake. It seems real because the URL it directed to was paypal.com... (on mouse down it changed to an ip).

[intelliot]

It seems real because the URL it directed to was paypal.com... (on mouse down it changed to an ip).
URL cloaking using Javascript, something like this?
onMouseOver="window.status='http://www.fakeURL.com/'; return true" onMouseOut="window.status=''; return true"
Just changes the status bar to show whatever they want.

[incka]

It was in outlook express though, so it's not as easily to tell as IE.

[thebillionaire]

whao, would a newsletter with adds which people sighned up for be considered spam?

[incka]

I hope not. They signed up for it so it should be legal.

[r2d2]

No, if they have signed up for it then they have registered an interest - i.e. they want the email. Its emailling random email addresses or email addresses bought from somewhere which is risky I think. Spam to my hotmail account dropped from about 5 a day to about 1 a week or less after that became law, I was quite surprised.

[incka]

I still get loads of spam.

It went down on the week I did all the unsubscibe things, but then went back up the week after. Blocking domains from emailing you works reasonably well if you have that option in your email client.

[Chris]

I get loads of spam still too, but its all the same.

Its either virus spam with an attachment. Spam for Cialis. Or spam telling me I won a $200,000 mortgage loan.

[LuckyShima]

A fair percentage of newsletters do not validate the email address given during the subscription process, so i wonder if a newsletter received through someone else subscribing can be said to be 'solicited', because, if it can, then newsletters can be sent as spam on the basis that 'someone' used the email address to subscribe.

[Kyle]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that not having a valid, working unsubscribe option is the big issue. If I went around and gathered 500 emails of random webmasters, and then emailed them a generic email asking them to buy viagra, is that really illegal? Again, I was always under the impression it was about having a valid working unsubscribe option.

[Chris]

The issue is the spoofing. The CAN-SPAM act just makes the spoofing of headers of commercial emails illegal.

[ozgression]

Spam to my hotmail account dropped from about 5 a day to about 1 a week or less after that became law, I was quite surprised.

That's probably due to hotmail's new junk mail filter. If you have a folder named "Junk", thats where most of the SPAM goes now. Or atleast, thats the reason SPAM numbers have fallen for me, lately.
________
oxygen vaporizer (http://www.vaporshop.com/oxygen-vaporizer.html)

[AndyH]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that not having a valid, working unsubscribe option is the big issue. If I went around and gathered 500 emails of random webmasters, and then emailed them a generic email asking them to buy viagra, is that really illegal? Again, I was always under the impression it was about having a valid working unsubscribe option.

Under the CAN-SPAM act I believe you still have to have them signup to recieve the mail and you have to provide an unsubscribe funtion that works and you also arn't allowed to spoof the email header. I would guess that most of the unsubscribe functions may work for that list, but they would just sign you up to another.

The only spam I get is pretty much...

"I can't believe it is true LOL!" with an attachment and other little phrases like that enticing the person to open the attachment.

It is very obvious that it is a virus (worm) but I can tell that heaps would be opening the attachment.

[Kyle]

I don't put spam and worms in the same boat. I got the impression that Chris was sure of himself in his answer.

[AndyH]

I class the emails I get as spam as I get about 5/day per email box...

It isn't true spam in the same sense, but similar.

[Chris]

http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/summ108.html#s877

[thebillionaire]

I have never gotten Spam, well only once for about 4 days, But thats it.

[moonshield]

i dont get any spam either... I really havent for several years... Come to think of it I dont get much email at all.

[incka]

I get spam every day. You really need a law making all commerical messages have an opt-out thing america... Look at the first unenacted bill, that one looks good.