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Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme

krebsonsecurity.com

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Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme

#211

Post by KMag »

jcheng wrote: post #196
KMag wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back around the turn of the millennium, there was a company called AllAdvantage. They paid you to install spyware/ad injection software and watch you browse, and sold the add space and analytics to corporations. They'd pay you for... I think it was 48 hours of ad-injected spied browsing per month, and then stop paying you (but keep injecting ads and spying on you). There was also a pyramid aspect where you'd get some…

Was this at MIT?

Yes. Did you happen to work with the AllAdvantage anti-fraud team, or know someone in Course 2 at MIT who dropped out of school writing poker bots and AllAdvantage bots?

Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme

#212

Post by sprokolopolis »

xwdv wrote: post #123
kstrauser wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Also, you do not want the Postal Inspectors showing up looking for you. Like, for real.

I once committed mail fraud when I was 17 years old. I had been using the return address as a destination address on envelopes to send mail to places for free without stamps. Finally got caught one day at the local branch. Postal Inspectors said I could face 20 to 30 years in federal prison.

I tried this a few times as a little kid to see if it would work. If I sent it from my home, it didn't work and I got it returned with red pen notes on it explaining how to send it properly. I am sure it looked like a little kids writing, so they gave me the benefit of the doubt. Next I mailed it from the post office and that actually worked, as long as it was being sent locally.

Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme

#214

Post by tpmx »

marcus0x62 wrote: post #209
theideaofcoffee wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, don't fuck with Postal Inspectors. Anecdotal, second-hand story I remembered being told by a former colleague with some significant time working in the Postal service: state or city police pulled over a contracted semi truck carrying mail from one station to the other on suspicion of running un-taxed cigarette shipments from a reservation manufacturer. Because the semi was contracted by the postal service, they…

Quite a bit more boring, but a co-worker once paid a contractor to install some blinds in his house, for a few thousand dollars. Dude took a down payment and then never delivered/installed the product, wouldn’t return their calls, etc. My coworker went to the local police, who wouldn’t do anything, but then his lawyer advised him to go to the postal inspector (he had mailed the check to the contractor.) The contracto…

The US justice system seems very odd to this European. Then I realize that if the EU project ever were to reach its presumed goals (by some), we'd probably end up with something pretty similar in terms of "oddness complexity".

Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme

#215

Post by WD40forRust »

goalonetwo wrote: post #19
janosdebugs wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you missed this part: > Prosecutors showed that each of those shell companies involved the production of notarized affidavits in the names of people who didn’t exist.

No I didn't. I'm wondering how putting someone that is arguably a smart entrepreneur behind jail for 5 year is going to better our society. We need to think about the bigger picture and how this fits into rehabilitation.

You are right, and should not be down-dooted.

Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme

#216

Post by bastardoperator »

tpmx wrote: post #105
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wire fraud, wire fraud, it's nearly always wire fraud. Elizabeth Holmes, George Santos, Charlie Javice, all the people who got fake Covid funds - wire fraud, wire fraud, wire fraud. In this day and age if you're committing fraud it's pretty hard for it not to be wire fraud given how everything is transmitted digitally. And penalties for wire fraud are extremely steep (up 20 years for each charge), and it automaticall…

If he had used e.g. the USPS mail service, would it then have been mail fraud instead? Similar sentencing?

Interstate commerce? Just spitballing...

Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme

#218

Post by cryptonector »

tpmx wrote: post #214
marcus0x62 wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite a bit more boring, but a co-worker once paid a contractor to install some blinds in his house, for a few thousand dollars. Dude took a down payment and then never delivered/installed the product, wouldn’t return their calls, etc. My coworker went to the local police, who wouldn’t do anything, but then his lawyer advised him to go to the postal inspector (he had mailed the check to the contractor.) The contracto…

The US justice system seems very odd to this European. Then I realize that if the EU project ever were to reach its presumed goals (by some), we'd probably end up with something pretty similar in terms of "oddness complexity".

I'd say you're already there.

Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme

#219

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

WD40forRust wrote: post #207
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wire fraud, wire fraud, it's nearly always wire fraud. Elizabeth Holmes, George Santos, Charlie Javice, all the people who got fake Covid funds - wire fraud, wire fraud, wire fraud. In this day and age if you're committing fraud it's pretty hard for it not to be wire fraud given how everything is transmitted digitally. And penalties for wire fraud are extremely steep (up 20 years for each charge), and it automaticall…

Sounds like I need to target wire fraud as well, with drug cultivation/sales, firearm manufacture/sale/possession (even by a felon), and tax evasion to my list of charges to jury nullify on...

So you're in favor of letting people (usually rich people) commit wire fraud?

Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme

#220

Post by rs999gti »

bhdlr wrote: post #178
rs999gti wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The underlying crime was wire fraud The other crime was looking like a douche canoe for his profile pic - https://krebsonsecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/amirg...

He looks like he was in a goth band while he was getting really good grades at one of Canada's top business schools

He looks like a contestant on VH1's The Pickup Artist - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pickup_Artist_(TV_series)
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