Dutch spammer who used compromised PCs to spamvertise web sites has been fined ?75,000 ($97,000) by Opta, the Netherlands telecoms regulator
The man - named only as Mr X - used 600-700 compromised PCs to send about nine billion spam messages promoting penis pills, pornographic websites and other assorted tat. X's 14-month junk mail campaign reportedly earned him an estimated ? 40,000 before he was collared in November 2005.
Firms the junk mailer promoted included Badcow, Caesarbucks, Epiccash, Datinggold, Adultactioncash, Blackmarketmoney 8 and Latinamaricanfinancia, the International Herald Tribune reports.
Opta said Microsoft has assisted in its investigation. In mitigation, X argued that he had stopped spamming by the time he was arrested - not because he realised his activities were wrong, but because he "simply wasn't earning enough money".
http://www.theregister.com/2007/02/0...spammer_fined/