Spammer of the millennium caught
Following a tip-off from Dutch authorities, the Australian Communications and Media Authority are investigating a man who maybe responsible for sending 2 billion spam emails.
The man, whose identity may not be revealed, pending the outcome of the investigations, allegedly sent the unsolicited and illegal spam emails to Internet users around the world.
The subject of most of the emails was the renowned anti-impotence drug, Viagra.
Australia carries heavy penalties for illegal spamming. If found guilty, the alleged spammer could be paying a fine of up to A$1.1 million (US$823,826) per day - the maximum penalty for repeat offenders.
The man is said to have set up his spamming system by renting 35 servers from an independent Internet service provider based in the Netherlands. This was at a cost of US$10,493 per month each, which indicates that the illegal business was clearly making a sizable profit. He is said to have been sending the spam on a daily basis for at least a year, which would bring the total number sent well into the billions.
Danyel Molenaar of the Dutch Independent Regulator of Post and Telecommunications has confirmed his rental of the servers.
Although this seems a large volume, experts say it is comparatively ‘small potatoes’ when viewed alongside the numbers of spam sent globally every year. This indicates that the man was probably working privately and not as part of a large syndicate.
Spamming is rife worldwide. The phenomenon, responsible for affecting most Internet users at some point, is notoriously difficult to stop. The basic idea behind spamming is sending unsolicited emails in the hope that some of the receivers will be tempted to respond - and it is clear that many do, or the trend would have died out.
Lyn Maddock, the Australian authority’s chairwoman, reported that the man was thought to have sent over 2 billion e-mails. The man’s home has been combed for evidence. No further details of the case are at present available.
More sophisticated spammers can reportedly send out about half a million spam e-mails an hour – that’s over a billion e-mails a day.