Spammer Gets More Than Two Years in Jail
Todd Moeller, a 28-year-old New Jersey man, was sentenced to 27 months in prison last week after pleading guilty to sending spam to 1.2 million AOL addresses on behalf of an unidentified government informant.
According to prosecutors, Moeller and his partner Adam Vitale boasted in instant messages to the informant that they could send bulk e-mail while hiding the sources of the blasts.
When the informant offered the two an opportunity to send spams advertising an unspecified product, Moeller and Vitale bit on the offer in return for 50% of the profits. Between August 17, 2005 and August 23, 2005 Moeller and Vitale sent spam to 1.2 million AOL subscribers on behalf of the informant, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Moeller and Vitale used other people’s computers to relay spam, making it look like the messages came from those machines, and altered header information, both illegal under the federal Can-Spam Act.
Vitale—who pled guilty in June to violations of the Can-Spam Act—is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 13.
