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Tech CEO sentenced to 5 years in IP address scheme

krebsonsecurity.com

191–200 of 311 posts

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

#191
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

You really need to tells us how you learned not to mess with Postal Inspectors. Sounds like a really interesting story is lurking behind your post...

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

#192
post #165
post #39

Earlier 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?

I'm not a lawyer, but: it becomes a crime when you use it to commit fraud. If you fake a name to buy something embarrassing, then pay the other person as agreed, nothing illegal happened.

My understanding is that using an alias to commit a fraud is an aggravating factor, like it means you went out of your way to deliberately hide your crime. It'd be awfully hard to convince a court that you made an honest mistake if you lied about your identity during the process.

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

#193
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In other words just not putting stamps at all, and the postal service would 'return' it to the address listed as return (which is actually your destination)?

Don't they stamp "postage due" on it if you're short postage?

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

#195
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On (taxes and fines on) 2 billion? That’s practically conspiracy-to-whistleblow territory. Get a couple coworkers to help you collect evidence.

You might be interested to know that there are apparently companies out there that identify people within organizations that may have the access and appropriate demeanor and attempt to get them to whistleblow. It was covered in an episode of Darknet Diaries. https://darknetdiaries.com/transcript/80/

Not barratry, not champerty, is there a term of art for this?

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

#196
post #116
post #21

Earlier 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…

Was this at MIT?

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

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Story time? What makes Postal Inspectors so feared.

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...

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

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Question from an ignorant network person: is IP rotation still common on ipv6? My primary fear with IPv6 is the touted "feature" of every device having an IP. While it's possible, yea, it sounds like a nightmare for privacy and tracking. Do the proponents of IPv6 also advocate for large ranges of IP rotations to deal with this?

Every major OS uses the IPv6 privacy extensions by default. Short version: your device frequently picks a new address at random.

a new address from a prefix that still identifies you? or a new address from a mixed pool of customers of your ISP?

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

#199
post #123

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 was part of a conspiracy to commit massive credit card fraud as a minor (thankfully all no longer relevant). I was given AT&T calling card numbers which were pilfered right from the USPS to use to connect to US BBSes to download hacked software.

The Belgian guy I was in with got raided by the police. His hard disks had been hidden behind a brick wall with only the cables visible. They didn't find the hard disks so he got away with it, and I never got arrested or charged.

Good times.

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

#200

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.

Robbing banks require a lot of smarts too. Say, why do we put bank robbers in jail when they could be smart entrepreneurs instead?
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