A Californian conman who posed as a rep from AOL’s billing department in order to dupe users into handing over financial details has been convicted of ID theft offences.
Jeffrey Brett Goodin, 45, of Azusa, California, was found guilty last week of sending thousands of bogus emails to AOL customers in the first conviction by a jury under the CAN SPAM Act 2003, the US’s anti-spam laws.
In addition to the CAN-SPAM Act conviction, Goodin was convicted of 10 other counts, including wire fraud, aiding and abetting the unauthorized use of credit cards, misuse of the AOL trademark, attempted witness harassment and failure to appear in court.
Goodin is scheduled to appear for sentencing before US District Court Judge Christina A. Snyder on June 11 where he faces a maximum sentence of up to 101 years imprisonment.
Maybe we should circulate a chain letter — asking that he serve his sentence in Nigeria?
@Eideard – just what we need: another spammer in Nigeria….
What a meanie. I think he should not be allowed near a computer ever again. 101 years seems a bit extreme.
[edited: comments guide]
hahaha…just seeing the title on the RSS feed cracked me up
good riddance
The Can-Spam act passed 4 years ago, and this is the 1st conviction?
Wow! At that rate, we’ll really cut down on SPAM.
Just 3 days ago, I got my first scam email. Normally my gmail filters out spam extreamly well, but this piece slipped through and I read it. Turns out to be a site that wanted me to follow the link to clear up problems with my Citi Bank card. They said they needed all my account info and failure to do so would result in my losing my account and possible being charged in a civil action.
Problem is, I don’t have a Citi Bank account. But it got me thinking about how many thousands do have one and how many of them wouldn’t realize this was a scam to get your account info. It looked very legal and real….if it had been the name of my real account I may have at least gone to the link.
Scary.
Send the culprit to the gallows….!!!
Damn I am sick and tired of those guys!
#6, Joshua: You’re right. Even staid, solid, otherwise intelligent people can get scammed. Just today it was discovered that the Treasurer of a Michigan County got sucked into the Nigerian scam and fed it with county funds!
http://tinyurl.com/3yg9ns
We could end spam if we could just teach people to use some common sense and skepticism. Not bloody likely, neh?
if it had been the name of my real account I may have at least gone to the link.
That’s why I have links for my bank, credit cards, etc. on a ‘homepage’ HTML. These are the KNOWN, secure links, so any ‘phishing’ mails just send me to the known safe link from that page. I also enjoy seeing what the ‘redirects’ are in links…
BTW, Thunderbird email will give a warning for redirects… I have a mail from Network Solutions for my URL forwarding that gives a pop up warning that the link IS a redirect.
J/P=?
Unbelievable. The ONLY acceptable way to deal with spammers is thermonuclear weapons – multiple drops just to be sure. There is no unacceptable level of civilian casualties if a spammer is nullified.