U.S. indicts 11 over 'pump-and-dump' stock spam
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Eleven people, including one of the top spammers in the world, were indicted on Thursday for allegedly sending millions of unsolicited e-mails intended to inflate the price of Chinese penny stocks.The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) called the scheme one of the largest spamming and fraud operations in the U.S. The 41-count indictment charges the defendants with conspiracy, several types of fraud, and money laundering.The indictment alleges the group sent spam via botnets, or networks of hacked computers. A three-year investigation revealed the e-mails, which implored investors to buy cheap stocks, contained fake headers and other misleading information, the DOJ said.After the price of a stock increased, the defendants sold at the artificially inflated price, a practice known as a&#160;pump-and-dump&#160;scam, according to the indictment. In mid-2005, the stock spam netted the defendants around $3 million, the DOJ said.Those charged include Alan M. Ralsky, 52, of West Bloomfield, Michigan. Spamhaus, a London-based organization that tracks spamming operations, listed&#160;Ralsky as one of the top professional spammers&#160;in the world. Also indicted was Ralsky&#39;s son-in-law, Scott K. Bradley, 46.Ralsky settled with Verizon after being sued in 2002 over spam. Ralsky and his company, Additional Benefits, agreed to pay Verizon and to stop sending spam on Verizon&#39;s network.Three of the 11 accused have been detained, and the rest -- including Ralsky -- are being sought, the DOJ said.
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A massive "pump and dump" stock scam spam attack was launched yesterday, sending out as many as 5 billion messages touting a German stock to recipients worldwide.
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The chief executive of business  software services company Smart Online Inc , his  brother and four brokers were arrested on Tuesday and charged  with participating in a scheme to pump up the company&#39;s stock,  prosecutors said.
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Buy low, spam high Pump-and-dump spammers are refining their tactics and marketing techniques in an attempt to drum up new business.â¦
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The U.S. government on Thursday  charged 13 people, including employees at major Wall Street  banks, with securities fraud, wire fraud, bribery and other  charges in what authorities are calling one of the most  pervasive insider trading rings in years.
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U.S. law enforcers have arrested  dozens in a crackdown on "spam" e-mail, identity theft and  other fraudulent online activity, a person involved in the  investigation said Wednesday.
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(InfoWorld) - Two men were convicted in Arizona Monday on eight criminal counts, including money laundering and transportation of obscene materials, in connection with running a pornographic spamming business, the U.S. Department of Justice said. A jury in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona in Phoenix convicted Jeffrey A. Kilbride, 41, of Venice, Calif., and James R. Schaffer, 41, of Paradise Valley, Ariz., on all eight counts they faced. The trial, which began June 5, was the first to include charges under the Controlling the Assault of Non-solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act, a law passed by the U.S. Congress in 2003 in an effort to crack down on unsolicited commercial e-mail. The men made "millions of dollars by sending unwanted sexually explicit e-mails to hundreds of thousands of innocent people, including families and children," Alice Fisher, assistant attorney general for the DOJ's Criminal Division, said in a statement. Kilbride and Schaffer started their spamming operation in 2003, and they made more than $2 million by sending out spam e-mail advertising porn Web sites, the DOJ said. The two earned a commission for each person directed to one of the sites. "Hard-core" pornographic images were embedded in each e-mail and were visible to any person who opened the e-mail, the DOJ said. Kilbride and Schaffer were convicted of two violations of the CAN-SPAM Act. One of the counts charged that Kilbride and Schaffer sent multiple electronic commercial mail messages containing falsified header information. In the other count, the two were charged with sending e-mail using domain names that were registered using false information. Kilbride and Schaffer were also convicted on one count of conspiring to commit fraud in connection with electronic mail and four counts of felony obscenity charges for transporting hard-core pornographic images of adults. They were also convicted on a federal money laundering charge for moving funds inside and out of the United States to conceal the ownership of those funds. The two face a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each CAN-SPAM and obscenity offense, as well as a fine of up to $500,000 and a maximum of 20 years in prison for money laundering. Sentencing is set for Sept. 24. When the CAN-SPAM Act went into effect in January 2004, Kilbride and Schaffer arranged to remotely log on to servers in Amsterdam, to make it look like their spam messages were being sent from abroad, when in reality Kilbride and Schaffer were operating their business from inside the United States, the DOJ said. Eight U.S. residents who complained to either the U.S. Federal Trade Commission or AOL traveled from Massachusetts, Texas, Iowa, and California to testify in the trial and to describe how their families, including some children, received the spam. AOL and the FTC received more than 660,000 complaints about the defendants' pornographic spam, including some from people who had set parental controls to protect their children from accessing graphic sexual content.
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The U.S. government on Thursday charged 13 people, including employees at major Wall Street banks, with securities fraud, wire fraud, bribery and other charges in what authorities are calling one of the most pervasive insider trading rings in years.
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A two-year investigation by US law enforcement authorities has resulted in one of the largest seizures of fake software ever in the US and charges against 11 individuals, government officials say.
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A [major spam outbreak] hit the Internet Wednesday causing the stock it was pumping to jump significantly in trading volume, according to communications security company IronPort.
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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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The FBI arrested 11 public officials, including a mayor and two state lawmakers, Thursday in a federal corruption probe that spread across the state, the U.S. Attorney's office said.
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A federal grand jury has indicted a Michigan man dubbed the âspam king,â and 10 others, in an international illegal bulk e-mailing and stock fraud operation.
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Pump and dump gang raked in millions Notorious spammer Alan Ralsky and ten others have been indicted in the US over the alleged use of junk mail to promote stock fraud scams.â¦
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By CARRIE JOHNSON  WASHINGTON - Securities regulators halted trading in nearly three dozen companies - the initial salvo in "Operation Spamalot," a campaign to block e-mails promoting stocks to unsuspecting investors.
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A federal grand jury in Detroit has  indicted a Michigan man dubbed the "spam king," and 10 others,  in an international illegal bulk e-mailing and stock fraud  scheme, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.
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Security firm Sophos Labs published its most recent "dirty dozen" report, saying that the United States relays more spam than any other country by a tremendous margin.