Spam Rager Among Those Charged With Cybercrime

from the pretty-damn-angry dept

Yesterday we wrote about how the Department of Justice was congratulating themselves on arresting a bunch of folks for online scams. Today, a bit more news comes out about some of these "scams". One of them appears to be a guy who got extremely pissed off at some adware and threatened one of the companies using the adware. The details aren't entirely clear, but it appears that the guy blamed the adware on a company claiming to be the "Only Reliable, Medically Approved Penis Enhancement" company. So, he contacted them and demanded that they stop flashing ads on his computer, and when they didn't comply he went a bit overboard and threatened to send them anthrax or to shoot them. Of course, it's a bit difficult to have much sympathy for either a spyware/adware company or a company offering penis enlargement products - but, my only question is why is this considered a "cyber" crime? If the guy made threats, then he made threats. The fact that a computer was involved should have nothing to do with it. The other issue here is that there are any number of folks who go a bit far in their anti-spam crusades, and this suggests that government has no problem going after them - rather than working on stopping real online scams like, say, places that promise they offer the "Only Reliable, Medically Approved Penis Enhancement."
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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Nov 2003 @ 1:32am

    Next generation cybercrimes?

    Perhaps we're in a relatively innocent era when net crimes consist of random spammers, virus writers, or child molestors. What about next-generation crimes, like hacking into a police database and creating a fake state custody order, to forcibly separate a kid from his family? Or hacking into a fertility clinic so that a bunch of babies with the wrong parents are born, hmmm....

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Fresh to you each morning, 22 Nov 2003 @ 9:42pm

    No Subject Given

    Well, yeah, he probably should have had a second thought about doing this, given the current climate. I can see why they nabbed him initially, but when the true story turns out to be something like this, most people should be let go.
    Recently, I found a piece of spyware in a Logitech driver, which was really screwing up my system. When I found out that Logitech put it there purposly, I made it a point to tell everyone I see, especially those people I see picking up Logitech equipment at the computer store. It has been amazingly effective. Most people are immediately put off the Logitech device, and go for another one. No threats, no dark dealings. Just word of mouth.
    Of course, you can't really do this with most penis enhancers.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    thecaptain, 24 Nov 2003 @ 6:23am

    No Subject Given

    I just don't see the problem here...where's this guy's medal? :)

    link to this | view in thread ]


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