Firms targeted in spam share scam
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Spammers offering stock market windfalls are luring firms with promises of higher share prices, analysts say.
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Don't believe everything you hear: That's message from security researchers tracking a spam scam that uses audio files to push an ongoing pump-and-dump stock scheme.
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A screensaver targeting spam-related websites could help drive spammers out of business.
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Microsoft, America Online (AOL), Yahoo and Earthlink have filed a handful of lawsuits against spammers, allegedly targeting some of the world&#39;s largest unsolicited mail offenders.
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com. Spammers are trying to make their junk mail look more legit by adopting the same technologies intended to stem their message tsunamis, said a filtering firm Wednesday.
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(InfoWorld) - Three U.S. men and one man living in France have pleaded guilty to charges related to a stock manipulation scheme that included sending out tens of millions of spam messages to pump up the stock value of 15 companies, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday. The four men cost investors more than $20 million in their so-called pump-and-dump scheme, the DOJ said. Michael Saquella, also known as Michael Paloma, 47, of Mesa, Arizona., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria on Aug. 20. Lawrence J. Kaplan, 63, of Scottsdale, Arizona, pleaded guilty on July 25, in Alexandria to similar charges. Henry "Hank" J. Zemla, 38, of Harris Township, Michigan, also pleaded guilty in federal court in Alexandria on July 20. The three defendants are scheduled to be sentenced between late November and early February. Saquella pleaded guilty to a criminal information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of electronic mail fraud involving 15 publicly traded companies. Kaplan pleaded guilty to a criminal information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud involving 14 of these companies, and Zemla pleaded guilty to a criminal information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud involving one of the companies. The plea agreements for all three defendants were unsealed Thursday. The scheme involved stocks from companies including eDollars, Xtreme Technologies, and PokerBook Gaming. Justin Medlin, 26, of Paris, also pleaded guilty in federal court in Alexandria on Aug. 20 to a criminal information charging him with one count of electronic mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and electronic mail fraud involving seven of the companies. Medlin's plea agreement was unsealed Thursday. He will be sentenced on Nov. 30. The maximum penalties for each of the fraud charges is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The stock manipulation schemes generally followed a similar pattern, the DOJ said. The defendants generally solicited small, privately held companies that needed to raise money. One of the defendants would offer to help the company raise significant money through the sale of the company's stock, and then the defendants would list the company's shares on the Pink Sheets, a price quotation system primarily used for trading small companies' stocks. The group of defendants would then gain control of a majority of the stock of the company, the DOJ said. The co-conspirators then engaged in deceptive and manipulative trading practices to boost the price and volume of the company's stock, the DOJ said. In some cases, members of the conspiracy encouraged investors to purchase companies' stock by giving the investors free-trading shares in return for buying blocks of shares at agreed-upon prices, thereby creating the illusion of trading volume and active investor interest. In other instances, members of the conspiracy bought and sold shares of the companies' stock between and among themselves to give the appearance of investor interest, the DOJ said. The co-conspirators also falsely manipulated the price and volume of each company's stock by making materially false and misleading statements in news releases and in spam e-mails distributed by Medlin and other spammers to tens of millions of U.S. e-mail addresses, in an effort to create artificial demand for the companies' stock, the DOJ said. In related actions, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against Saquella and Kaplan for their part in the schemes to manipulate the price and volume of the companies' securities. Three other defendants, Steven P. Luscko, Gregory A. Neu, and Brian G. Brunette, have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced in federal court in Alexandria for their roles in related stock manipulation schemes. Luscko and Neu were each sentenced to five years in prison and Brunette was sentenced to one year in prison.
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By Shyla Sangaran  THE rising use of networks of compromised machines, or botnets, to send out spam is becoming a major security headache for enterprises across the globe, including Malaysia.
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The tech behemoth targets more spammers for lawsuits.
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Revelations of corporate fraud are dependent on a wide range of sometimes unlikely players.
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Your e-mail gets spammed, your instant messaging client gets spammed, your blog comments get spammed... and now your printer doesn't have to feel left out, because researcher Aaron Weaver has discovered how the sellers of pump-and-dump stocks and dubious chemical concoctions can get you there, too.
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Rampages through the Pink Sheets The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today hit back at 'pump and dump' fraudsters by suspending trading in 35 companies that have been the "subject of recent and repeated spam email campaigns". Next step of its pleasingly named "Operation Spamalot", is to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.â¦
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Three people at the center of a scam that preyed on investors by enticing them with voice-mail messages packaged as secret stock tips pleaded guilty to criminal charges yesterday in a District courtroom.
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In a second round of lawsuits announced on Thursday, four major US Internet service providers (ISPs) are taking on senders of e-mail spam and unwanted commercial messages sent via instant messaging.
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Internet firm Lycos UK released free screensaver software that allows users to attack spammers using the same mass mailing techniques the spammers themselves use to fill up the worldâs inboxes.
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Warning over 'gazzumping' ruse Domain name scammers are once again targeting UK firms.â¦
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Lycos made headlines during the past several days by distributing a screensaver designed to swamp the sites of those deemed responsible for spam with traffic, in effect giving spammers, at least the companies that bankroll them, a taste of their own
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Aggressive spam blasts against specific domains disrupt small and midsize businesses.