*** Man Takes On Spammers And Wins ***

Redmond, Washington (AP) -- 05/08/2004
They raked in nearly $100,000 a month
sending illegal spam to your computer.

Now a local man just helped put them out of business.
It's the first arrest since the new anti-spam law took effect this year.

He has information you need to get more spammers behind bars.

Federal agents say this crackdown is just the beginning and
Lee Wright of Redmond played a big role in catching the suspects.

Lee's just back from Washington, D.C. after helping federal agents
nab four suspected spammers operating out of Michigan.

Lee runs a nationwide e-mail service called ModoMail,
and ModoMail has one mission: getting rid of spam.

"We're kind of a self-proclaimed anti-spam company,"
Wright said.

Special programs detect spam traveling through ModoMail's
servers and "kicks" the spammers out of the system.

But back in February, the Michigan spammers
hijacked ModoMail's return address.

"People were sending out spam with a return address of ModoMail,
even though it wasn't going through our system," he said.

It could be part of an international Web of deception.

Spammers use special programs to penetrate unprotected servers
all over the world. When they get a hit, they use those servers to
relay spam to millions of e-mail boxes a day.

In the process, they use an innocent third party's return address
so the sender you see is actually a hijacked or forged address.

The links in the spam ads go disguised Web sites.
Credit card buys are routed through hidden processing sites.

And there no way to contact who's behind it.

But Lee's special programs help him trace 3 suspect Web sites.
He alerted the Federal Trade Commission.

Thanks to Lee's detective work, and fierce tracking by federal agents,
Phoenix Avatar of Michigan is shut down.

The four operators face civil and criminal charges for spamming,
and "scamming" people with phony diet patch offers, that generated
as much as $100,000 a month.

"Oh, it was... it felt good," Wright said about being able to
help put at least on group of spammers out of business.

But he knows this is just the tip of the iceberg. His next project is a
special Web site called Fighting Spam.com to help other e-mail
businesses, consumers and investigators share information about
spammers, new patterns, suspect Web sites and how to help stop
them from jamming your e-mail.

The feds also shut down a company called Global
Web Promotions out of Australia and New Zealand.

Attorneys told news reporters the suspects face up to
20 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.

Agents say you can help catch more spammers by forwarding
all spam to the Federal Trade Commission at http://rn.ftc.gov

They also suggest not to open the spam and don't buy anything.

And make sure you have adequate security
programs to protect your server from intruders.

INFO -
http://www.genesbmx.com/fightbackagainstspam-wa-law.html

Geneb...Wenatchee,Washington-USA
All Things Northwest in BMX!
***** Gene`s BMX *****
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