Phisher Man Arrested -- Discovers He Now Owes $3 Million To Bill Gates
from the oops dept
While there have been lawsuits filed against the various people behind phishing scams, actually tracking them down isn't very easy. With a little legwork, however, Microsoft and federal officials were able to track down a man who had run a phishing scam targeting Microsoft users. Microsoft had filed the "John Doe" case against this guy two years ago, and the courts gave Microsoft a default judgment in the case for $3 million. Of course, all that time, they didn't actually know who the guy was -- which might seem a bit unfair, since he was unable to defend himself. Either way, Microsoft recently figured out who he was, and passed on the info to federal authorities who tracked him down earlier this week. The $3 million he apparently owes Microsoft is probably the least of his problems now, however. He's being charged with 75 counts of wire fraud, and each count can lead to 20 years in jail or a fine.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Going to sound petty, but...
1) Bill Gates and Microsoft are truly concerned about the safety of their customers and go to great lengths to ensure this.
2) Bill Gates and Microsoft feel that misleading people and ripping them off is their exclusive domain and they don't like competition, so they're using the courts to eliminate them.
I'd like to believe it's #1, but the little devil on my shoulder is assuring me that it's really #2.
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Re: Going to sound petty, but...
The correct answer is
3) Microsoft found themselves having a negative reputation and are working to turn that negative to a positive.
Honestly... If you had their reputation, and you thought it was hurting sales, woudln't you try to fix it?
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Microsoft's reputation
Mission Impossible, eh? ;)
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Re: Going to sound petty, but...
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Re: Going to sound petty, but...
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Re: Going to sound petty, but...
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Phishing
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No Subject Given
You guys need to get off the anti-Microsoft band wagon...
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Re: No Subject Given
How about Microsoft shipping products that work as advertised?
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