Another botnet spammer bites the dust

[mjh]

A Florida man faces up to ten years in federal prison and a quarter-million in fines, after pleading guilty to dropping adware onto unsuspecting users' computers for cash.

Botnet master Robert Matthew Bentley, 21, of Panama City, Florida, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit computer fraud and computer fraud charges. Bentley was one of eight bot net herders busted under Operation Bot Roast II, an anti-bot net and spammer campaign that was launched with participation from London Metro Police, the US Secret Service, US Federal Bureau of Investigation, Finland National Bureau of Investigation, and other agencies.

I have no sympathy for people who do these kinds of activities.

I honestly wish they would fine him more money and give him a longer sentence, in an attempt to send a stern warning to other botnet masters.

 

[Moonbeam]

Funny how I used to abhor the Inquisition and now I look forward to Sharia law so we can stone him.

 

[CalvinHobbes]

I'm very glad to see these people getting busted and doing time.

 

[Robor]

WooHoo! Always nice to see one of these guys go down. Hopefully they get the max sentence.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Originally posted by: CalvinHobbes
I'm very glad to see these people getting busted and doing time.

I work at a datacenter with some pretty big pipes to the internet.

It attracts alot of spammers. We screen the spammers, but alot of times they have their wives, girlfriends, etc try and setup dedicated servers so we can't trace them down. They'll say they are going to be hosting a church website forum, and instead they send out a million emails in their first night online.

We've started to put filters on new customers, basically limiting the amount of email they can send out during the first 90 days as a customer. If they are open about being a mailing company, and let us inspect their opt-in lists, they we will remove the filter and give them a probation period.

Some of the scammer spammers though, that lie just to get services setup, we've gotten pretty nasty with them because they get our IP space blacklisted.

We have had to "under the table" tell them that we'd have their asses thrown in jail for spamming if we could.

 

[Lemon law]

TeckboyJk only tells is about the semi honest ones who actually are willing the rent the bandwidth to spam with. The real rascals use botnets so they basically can use the PC of honest users and turn them into zombies email boxes without the owner's knowledge or consent.

Hopefully there will be a special hell for those slimeballs who hack other people's computers. And its why we should all be computer security aware. As it is, its not all the hard to defend one's self, but 2/3 of all users are vulnerable so hackers are not running short of computers to hack.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Originally posted by: Lemon law
TeckboyJk only tells is about the semi honest ones who actually are willing the rent the bandwidth to spam with. The real rascals use botnets so they basically can use the PC of honest users and turn them into zombies email boxes without the owner's knowledge or consent.

Hopefully there will be a special hell for those slimeballs who hack other people's computers. And its why we should all be computer security aware. As it is, its not all the hard to defend one's self, but 2/3 of all users are vulnerable so hackers are not running short of computers to hack.

oh, we get those who use the bandwidth as launching pads for the their botnets... we call the FBI on those and pull the ethernet cable out.

 

[halik]

Hope he made reservations in the FPMITA Prison

 

[Superrock]

His sentence should be harsher. He needs to be made an example of what happens to those who spam emails.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: Superrock
His sentence should be harsher. He needs to be made an example of what happens to those who spam emails.

He is an example. Most "bot master" types aren't hardened criminals, they're e-thugs who are do what they do because they think there is no risk. Start throwing them in jail at all and they'll move on to other pursuits pretty fast, I suspect.

 

[Lemon law]

I don't know if the Rainsford answer is correct with--He is an example. Most "bot master" types aren't hardened criminals, they're e-thugs who are do what they do because they think there is no risk. Start throwing them in jail at all and they'll move on to other pursuits pretty fast, I suspect.

More likely the smart and greedy ones will simply flee overseas and so avoid the short arm of US law.

Its the money that corrupts and email is a adman's dream. Until we refuse to buy from any company that uses email spam advertising and will pay a spammer to get their message across, two new spammer will be set up and running long before the cell door slams shut on this one.