Posted on: Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Raids target biggest spam producers

By Jon Swartz
USA Today

Federal authorities are quietly carrying out a series of raids against the nation's biggest suspected spam operators in their most aggressive actions yet.

Sometimes striking in the early morning, law-enforcement officials in recent weeks have pounced on ventures in Florida, Arizona, New Jersey and New York that allegedly used spam to defraud consumers. More actions are expected.

Computer equipment is being seized in hopes of finding evidence that will flush out associates worldwide and lead to criminal charges, FBI agents say. The searches are being made under a year-old federal anti-spam law.

The actions are the latest wrinkle in the fight against spam, which has flourished despite high-profile legislation and lawsuits. Though the low-key raids won't make an immediate dent, they send a strong message. The top 200 spammers are responsible for 90 percent of spam e-mail that clogs Internet traffic and cost businesses and consumers more than $20 billion worldwide last year, anti-spam experts say.

Dozens of high-powered computers, allegedly used to pump out millions of spam mailings a day, were confiscated from a marketing firm in Boca Raton, Fla., last month. The search, and at least three others, follows a Justice Department probe last summer, Operation Web Snare, in which 160 alleged cybercriminals were arrested.

"Law enforcement understands the significant economic impact of spam," says Dan Larkin, head of the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center. He says the investigations were assisted by tech companies, such as Microsoft and America Online, that supplied evidence.

Something dramatic needs to be done, anti-spam experts say, because spammers aren't dissuaded by laws and lawsuits. About 97 percent of unsolicited commercial e-mail violates the law, says anti-spam firm MX Logic.

"It really comes down to enforcement," says Julian Haight, founder of SpamCop, an anti-spam organization. "It doesn't eliminate the problem but gets the attention of the bad guys."