I’ve mentioned this before on HN but I personally dealt with this guy when I was in NOC at a smaller cloud / dedicated hosting provider. He wanted us to announce range for him and everything appeared to check out until we got a complaint and we promptly withdrew the announcement while we got to the bottom. This guy wasn’t very pleasant to deal with and he kept coming back trying to get us to announce different IP ranges. He eventually went away as we just kept pushing back.
Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme
271–280 of 311 posts
Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme
#272The underlying crime was wire fraud, and it happened to be about acquiring IP addresses. He wasn’t prosecuted because he got too many, but for how he got them.
Yep. If he had real people or real companies buying these IP addresses (even if they are shell companies) he would be fine. Apparently he started like that but then he got greedy and said: fuck I will just invent some fake people. The actual criminal activity (fradulent affidavits, forged signatures) started in 2017.
Nah he was doing the forging way before that as I had left my previous role in NOC back in 2017. I dealt with this guy probably around 2015-2016 and after we got a complaint about announcement we suspected forgery as the rightful owner shared more than this guy could except for some docs which apparently the other party never signed but magically there was a signature.
Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
IPv4 addresses are like Socks. You can never have too many...
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…
You had me at alladvantage
That and netzero. The wild west of the internet.
The only thing missing from your story was Napster
Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme
#274Earlier 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…
Or... do? 77k fine for a net worth of $10-14 million from his businesses, and a 5 years sentence at a minimum security prison (with the likelihood of parole much earlier) is not a bad retirement plan.
There is no parole in the Federal prison system.
Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
No, but everything about that story sounded like MIT around the time I was there! Thanks for sharing, took me back.
Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
So you're in favor of letting people (usually rich people) commit wire fraud?
When it's a victimless crime like this?
It's hardly victimless-- when you lie to get something of value that would otherwise go to other people, and then sell it, you're ripping those people off.
Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme
#277Earlier 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…
It's often easier to prove this (or, even more often, tax evasion) than prove the alleged criminal activity. Either way, bad guy goes to jail, so the government is happy.
Would like to see Amazon charged with wire fraud for all the counterfeit stuff they sell. It's paid for "by wire" is it not? And almost certainly across state lines which makes it federal.
Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
For one the Postal Inspection service consistently has a high conviction rate around 98%[0]. Whether that's due to operational excellence or the ability to unwrap evidence for a living is subject for discussion. [0]: https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2019/pb22524/html/cov...
Or it doesn't move unless it's nearly certain of its case.
Or the law is so wide-ranging that basically anyone is guilty of something.
Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep. If he had real people or real companies buying these IP addresses (even if they are shell companies) he would be fine. Apparently he started like that but then he got greedy and said: fuck I will just invent some fake people. The actual criminal activity (fradulent affidavits, forged signatures) started in 2017.
At what point does using a fake name turn into a felony? How about creating an email address using a pseudonym? Or does it have to involve money? If someone uses a fake name to order a sex toy delivered (out of embarrassment) is that wire fraud?
"Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the violation occurs in relation to, or involving any benefit authorized, transported, transmitted, transferred, disbursed, or paid in connection with, a presidentially declared major disaster or emergency (as those terms are defined in section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act ( 42 U.S.C. 5122 )), or affects a financial institution, such person shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both."
So if you are doing things purely for anonymity it's OK, but if you are registering many email addresses to overcome email service's per account free storage limit, or if you order sex toy delivery for new identity to get a first buyer's discount multiple times, then as I understand that could be a wire fraud.
Re: Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's often easier to prove this (or, even more often, tax evasion) than prove the alleged criminal activity. Either way, bad guy goes to jail, so the government is happy.
Would like to see Amazon charged with wire fraud for all the counterfeit stuff they sell. It's paid for "by wire" is it not? And almost certainly across state lines which makes it federal.
Fraud is the wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.
While counterfeit stuff are sold by sellers in the marketplace that Amazon provides, that is not equivalent to Amazon being the one selling the stuff.