Stock scam spam duo sued

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Aug 22, 2006

Pump-and-dump couple face fines, as do many others worldwide.

A Connecticut couple have been indicted over claims they used a spam campaign to artificially inflate stock prices. In a fairly typical example of the pump-and-dump scam, the pair allegedly bought a swathe of cheap stocks in a small startup company, spread rumours of major deals using a spam campaign, then cashed in to the tune of $1 million when the stock prices shot up.

"This is sad evidence that people are still being tricked out of their cash by spammers," said John Hawes, Technical Consultant at Virus Bulletin. "Surely people realise that an email from a total stranger, offering them fool-proof ways of making fast and easy money, is almost certainly a scam?"

As the pump-and-dump scam falls into a legally grey area, and is generally thought to be unethical rather than actually illegal, it seems likely the case will be settled out of court.

Elsewhere in the fight against spam, two US men, accused of sending up to a million spam mails in a single day, face up to 3 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 after being charged under spam laws by a federal grand jury in San Diego - see the US Attorney's Office press release in PDF format here (or here in HTML, accompanied by ads for bulk mail tools). Further afield, a Chinese company has been fined 5,000 yuan ($625) for sending bulk mails, in a landmark case for the country, while in Romania police report rounding up a sizeable and 'sophisticated' phishing ring, making 23 arrests, with suspects facing up to 15 years imprisonment.

Posted on 22 August 2006 by Virus Bulletin

 Tags

twitter.png
fb.png
linkedin.png
hackernews.png
reddit.png

 

Latest posts:

VBSpam tests to be executed under the AMTSO framework

VB is excited to announce that, starting from the Q3 test, all VBSpam tests of email security products will be executed under the AMTSO framework.

In memoriam: Prof. Ross Anderson

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of Professor Ross Anderson a few days ago.

In memoriam: Dr Alan Solomon

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of industry pioneer Dr Alan Solomon earlier this week.

New paper: Nexus Android banking botnet – compromising C&C panels and dissecting mobile AppInjects

In a new paper, researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Bansal provide details of a security vulnerability in the Nexus Android botnet C&C panel that was exploited in order to gather threat intelligence, and present a model of mobile AppInjects.

New paper: Collector-stealer: a Russian origin credential and information extractor

In a new paper, F5 researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Chaturvedi present a 360 analysis of Collector-stealer, a Russian-origin credential and information extractor.

We have placed cookies on your device in order to improve the functionality of this site, as outlined in our cookies policy. However, you may delete and block all cookies from this site and your use of the site will be unaffected. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to Virus Bulletin's use of data as outlined in our privacy policy.