The DOJ followed through with their promised big announcement today of the dozens of spammers, scammers, and just plain Internet nasties they’d whacked since June 1st.
Here, from their own press release, is a peek at some of those badies:
“Some of the charges filed in districts throughout the country include:
In the Central District of California, a federal grand jury indicted a Romanian computer hacker and five U.S. residents on charges that they allegedly conspired to steal more than $10 million in computer equipment from Ingram Micro in Santa Ana, California — the largest technology distributor in the world. The indictment alleges that Calin Mateias hacked into Ingram Micro?s online ordering system and placed fraudulent orders for computers and computer equipment. Mateias allegedly directed that the equipment be sent to dozens of addresses scattered throughout the United States as part of an Internet fraud ring. In a separate indictment in the Western District of Pennsylvania, Mateias was charged in another alleged scheme involving shipments of fraudulently ordered merchandise that was sent to co-conspirators in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Louisiana.
In the Northern District of California, Roman Vega of Ukraine made an initial appearance in federal court after being extradited from Cyprus to face a 40-count indictment alleging credit card trafficking and wire fraud. Vega allegedly used Internet chat rooms to traffic in credit card information of thousands of individuals that had been illegally obtained from sources around the world, including credit card processors and merchants. Vega was also allegedly an operator of a website at www.boafactory.com, where stolen and counterfeit credit card account information was allegedly bought and sold.
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In the District of Utah, R. Mark Pentrack was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison as a result of his guilty pleas to mail fraud, misuse of a Social Security number, attempted destruction of evidence, and making a false statement in connection with an Internet fraud scheme. Pentrack offered car parts, aircraft parts, and other items for sale over the Internet, but did not possess those items and did not deliver those items to buyers. To conceal his activities, he hired secretaries in five states outside Utah to receive payments from would-be buyers, used an e-mail service based in Australia, and used an anonymizing program when conducting online activities. More than 10 individuals sent Pentrack more than $200,000 in connection with the scheme. After being arrested, Pentrack tried to enlist two people to enter his apartment and remove two computers and other materials relating to his scheme before federal authorities could find and seize them. He also made false statements concerning his scheme to federal authorities.
On August 20, 2004, in the Western District of Washington, Usman Hayat of Islamabad, Pakistan, pleaded guilty in federal court in Seattle to one count of transmitting interstate and foreign communications with intent to extort, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 875(d). According to the plea agreement, Hayat contacted Eddie Bauer, Inc. in February 2004, via email, threatening to release photos that Hayat alleged showed child labor being used in the production of Eddie Bauer apparel. Hayat claimed he would post the photos on the web or send them to the media or Eddie Bauer?s creditors if he was not paid $685,000. (According to Eddie Bauer officials, regular audits and unannounced inspections of the Pakistani factories where its apparel are produced have found no evidence of the use of child labor in the manufacture of Eddie Bauer products.) At the direction of law enforcement, Eddie Bauer communicated with Hayat via email and ultimately provided Hayat with a plane ticket to Seattle. In the plea agreement, Hayat admitted that he traveled to Eddie Bauer headquarters in Redmond, Washington, and met with undercover agents in order to collect the $685,000 he had demanded. At the meeting, Hayat showed the agents photographic negatives that he claimed showed child labor. Federal agents provided him with $500,000 cash. Hayat reviewed the money and agreed to meet the agents the next day to open bank accounts and deposit the money. Hayat was arrested before leaving the Eddie Bauer offices.
Six men were charged in the Central District of California in the largest and first-ever case involving sophisticated denial of service attacks for commercial advantage. Jay R. Echouafni, Chief Executive Officer of Orbit Communication Corporation in Massachusetts, was indicted by a federal grand jury this week on multiple charges of conspiracy and causing damage to protected computers. The indictment and a related complaint filed allege that Echouafni and a business partner hired computer hackers in Arizona, Louisiana, Ohio, and the United Kingdom to launch relentless computer attacks against Orbit Communication’s online competitors. These sustained attacks allegedly began in October 2003 and caused the victims to lose over $2 million in revenue and costs associated with responding to the attacks. In addition, it is alleged that the attacks temporarily disrupted other commercial and government sites hosted by the victims’ internet service providers. The case involved close cooperation among several United States Attorneys’ Offices around the country, the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, and law enforcement agencies in the United States and United Kingdom.”
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Hmm… a lot of scammers, but I don’t see a lot of spam there. where are the spammers?