AOL Spammer's Success Leads To Jail Sentence

By WebProNews Staff - Wed, 07/16/2008 - 07:41

Habitual criminal gets 30 months

Breaking through AOL's anti-spam efforts, combined with talking to the wrong person, netted spammer Adam Vitale two and a half years in jail.

The repeatedly convicted Vitale finally received his sentence in a case that concerned AOL. He and another man, Todd Moeller, engaged in the kind of spamming that filtering measures should stop, but in AOL's case, did not.

Reuters said Vitale picked up a 30-month sentence in the case, as well as a $180,000 penalty to be repaid to AOL.

They managed to elude AOL's defense through a combination of relays and forged headers, which suggests the use of compromised computers as part of a botnet. Such botnets regularly figure in massive spamming campaigns.

Vitale originally faced 11 years in jail and a $250,000 fine for violating the CAN-SPAM Act. Vitale came to the attention of federal authorities after assuring a government informant he could spam about 300 million people.

Vitale also suggested a deal with the informant that would have Vitale spam people with ads for a security product in exchange for half the profits on that product's sales.

News Tags: Adam Vitale, Spam, AOL

7 Comments

By Dekalb County Jail (WPN reader) - Tue, 07/07/2009 - 18:26

What he deserves

I think he got what he deserves - spammers cost internet users millions of dollars a year in terms of lost time. A lot of blue collar criminals get a lot more time without affecting so many people.

By Reiki (WPN reader) - Mon, 09/22/2008 - 03:00

I wish

wow...people going to jail for spamming

I wish they do it in my country too

By SafetyandSecurity (WPN reader) - Thu, 07/17/2008 - 16:27

This I understand...but

This kind of deliberate attempt at circumventing AOL's defense through a combination of relays and forged headers, suggesting the use of compromised computers as part of a botnet with the purpose of massive spamming campaigns, I agree should be stopped.

However, small business owners who respond to related articles with helpful information and try to add a url tag at the end to make it easier for readers to find their site if they so choose is also considered spam and are warned or worse blocked entirely.

I have a safety and security web site. One of my roles is to raise awareness for a safer lifestyle as well as offer products to enhance that safety.

I would like to be able to make my products more accessible to those who feel they need them after reading one of my comments but I would risk being blocked if I added my url. I definitely think this is wrong.

I've seen comments in blogs that use foul and inflammatory language disguised with symbols and blanks that everyone knows what being said, yet a sincerely well thought out comment of mine that is meant to help people stay safe will get blocked, band or warned if I add my url at the end.

I wish there were a way to change this. I am certainly not in the same category as Adam Vitale yet I feel I am being equally punished.

By Guest (WPN reader) - Sun, 07/20/2008 - 08:24

Free market

Sorry to tell you but the "free market" no longer exists in this country. It started with the DO not call registry and will end in the failure of this country's economy. I said way back when they instituted the federally controlled DNC list that a "recession" (or worse) would ensue. Everyone laughed. Well...look at us now. Not that I was in favor of bothering people during the dinner hour but the private sector could have stopped that on it's own with technology and continued the "Free market" concept. Big brother is watching over our interests. Just great, Big brother can't even balance it's own budget. Now he has his fingers in our personal budget. Alas, Communisim died in The East to be reborn in the west. For sales now it's "Do not call, Do not fax, Do not mail, Do not email, Do not approach me on the street, Do not........." There went the marketing portion of the "Free market", What next?

By MudPuppy (WPN reader) - Thu, 08/07/2008 - 15:00

You could have predicted it

You could have predicted it would rain when they instituted the DNC. That prediction would have been amazing true also.

By Art Glick (WPN reader) - Mon, 07/21/2008 - 16:20

Oh C'mon!

C'mon. Blaming the neocons' mismanagement of our economy and foreign policy for the last seven years on the Do Not Call Registry is stretching it just a bit, don't you think?

We sell plenty of products without cold calling customers. I'd say your bias is showing. Whatever it is that you sell, I'm glad you can't bother me with an unsolicited pitch.

Market your product properly on the free market, and if I want to buy one, I'll find you.

By FaTe (WPN reader) - Thu, 07/17/2008 - 14:43