Man charged over tsunami e-mails
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Police have charged a man in connection with hoax e-mails sent to the families of people missing after the Asia tsunami.
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Police in London charged a 40-year-old man in connection with a series of hoax e-mails sent to friends and relatives of people missing since the Asian tsunami a week ago claiming they were dead.
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Three people have pleaded guilty to charges related to spam e-mail that promised U.S. victims millions of dollars from an estate and a lottery, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.In one scenario, the defendants sent e-mails purporting to be from an individual suffering from terminal throat cancer who needed assistance distributing approximately $55 million to charity, the DOJ said.The three defendants, two from Nigeria and one from Senegal, sent spam e-mail to thousands of potential victims, in which they falsely claimed to control millions of dollars located abroad, the DOJ said in a press release. The fraud victims lost $1.2 million by giving the defendants advance fees, the DOJ said.Pleading guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York were Nnamdi Chizuba Anisiobi, whose aliases include Yellowman, Abdul Rahman, Michael Anderson, Edmund Walter, Nancy White, Jiggaman, and Namo, age 31, of Nigeria; Anthony Friday Ehis, also known as John J. Smith, Toni N. Amokwu, and Mr. T, age 34, of Senegal; and Kesandu Egwuonwu, also known as KeKe, Joey Martin Maxwell, David Mark, and Helmut Schkinger, age 35, of Nigeria.Anisiobi pled guilty to one count of conspiracy, eight counts of wire fraud, and one count of mail fraud. Ehis pled guilty to one count of conspiracy and five counts of wire fraud. Egwuonwu pled guilty to one count of conspiracy, three counts of wire fraud, and one count of mail fraud.The maximum penalty for mail and wire fraud is 20 years in prison. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.A fourth defendant, Lenn Nwokeafor, fled to Nigeria and was subsequently arrested by the Nigerian Economic &amp; Financial Crimes Commission on July 27, 2006. He is being held by the Nigerian authorities pending extradition to the United States, the DOJ said.In the throat cancer scheme, the defendants offered to give a 20 percent commission to the victim, or a charity of his or her choice, in exchange for the victim&#39;s help. The defendants would send a variety of fraudulent documents, including a &quot;letter of authority&quot; or a &quot;certificate of deposit,&quot; making it appear that the promised funds were available, as well as pictures of an individual claiming to suffer from throat cancer, the DOJ said.Defendant Anisiobi allegedly telephoned victims, disguising his voice to give the impression that he was suffering from throat cancer.After obtaining their victims&#8217; trust, the defendants asked them to wire-transfer payment for a variety of advance fees for legal representation, taxes, and additional documentation. The victims then received nothing back, the DOJ said.In some cases, if the victims said they could not afford to pay the advance fees, the defendants would send them counterfeit checks, supposedly from a cancer patient, to cover those fees. Many victims deposited the checks and then drew on them to wire-transfer the advance fees. When the checks did not clear, the victims suffered substantial losses, the DOJ said.&quot;Online scam artists should be on notice that we will continue to work closely with our international partners to ensure that there are no safe geographic boundaries for committing these crimes,&quot; Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher of the DOJ&#39;s Criminal Division said in a statement.The investigation was initiated by Dutch law enforcement authorities, who notified the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which opened its own investigation. The three who pled guilty were arrested in Amsterdam on Feb, 21, 2006.
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SEATTLE -- A 27-year-old man described as one of the world's most prolific spammers was arrested Wednesday, and federal authorities said computer users across the Web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk e-mail.
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Police are investigating a website that claims to be collecting cash on behalf of tsunami victims.
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Police said Friday they have arrested a man who claimed he sent at least one of a spate of letter bombs at British companies linked to traffic enforcement.
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MARK COLVIN: The man accused of being the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah has been charged under Indonesia&#39;s anti-terror laws over the Marriott hotel bombing a year ago.
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A man has been charged after a police inquiry into a string of sex attacks in West Sussex over the past decade.
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(InfoWorld) - A Seattle man was arrested Wednesday morning for illegal spamming activities. The arrest follows an indictment by a federal grand jury in Seattle last week. The indictment charges Robert Alan Soloway and his company, Newport Internet Marketing Corp., with fraudulently selling broadcast e-mail products and services that amounted to spam. The U.S. attorney's office for the Western District of Washington refers to Soloway as a "spam king," for the volume of unsolicited commercial e-mail his company produced. He is charged with mail fraud, identity theft, fraud, and money laundering. Soloway advertised a mass e-mail service that sent messages to an opt-in list of addresses, but didn't actually use such a permission-based list, the indictment said. He also sold software products that customers could use themselves to send out mass e-mails. However, the product often didn't work and if it did, it sent e-mails using forged headers. He also failed to offer promised support services, according to the court documents. In addition, when customers complained, Soloway threatened additional fees and referral to a collection agency. Soloway is also accused of sending out tens of millions of e-mails, often using forged e-mail addresses and domains in the "from" line, advertising his services. As a result, some people who legitimately owned the e-mail address or domain were blamed for the spam and blacklisted by Internet service providers. The indictment also said that Soloway used programs and many different proxy computers in an effort to hide the source of the messages. Soloway conducted the spamming activities at least from late 2003 through early this year, the indictment said. If convicted, Soloway faces fines of over $772,000, which is the amount he illegally obtained from his activities, as well as forfeiture of other money and property.
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An Indian doctor was charged by Australian police on Saturday for "reckless" links to a cell of Islamic radicals allegedly behind last month's failed car bomb attempts in Britain.
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Police are investigating a series of hoax e-mails sent to those with loved ones missing after the Asian tsunami.
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A man described as one of the world's most prolific spammers is charged with wire fraud and money laundering for activities related to his business.
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An Australian man under investigation for illegal spamming sent more than 2 billion e-mails promoting Viagra in a year, an official said Wednesday.
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An Australian man whose international email scam stripped A$5 million ($5.48 million) from his victims has been jailed in a continuing global war against Nigerian internet frauds.
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Duo arrested for 1.6b e-mails   Two computer programmers have been arrested on suspicion of sending out 1.6 billion spam e-mail messages, violating commerce laws, police said yesterday.
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A man has been charged with preparing a terror attack, police say.
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Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir is charged with involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings.