Thoughts, comments, musings on life, politics, current events and the media. Thursday, May 27, 2004 Someone who belongs in Abu Ghraib A least a small measure of justice: A man who sent 850 million junk e-mails through accounts he opened with stolen identities was sentenced to prison Thursday after telling the judge the case against him was overblown and had no victims. "I obviously regret this whole involvement," Howard Carmack began before being sentenced to 3-1/2 to 7 years in prison on charges including forgery, identity theft and falsifying business records. Good deal. A drop in the bucket, of course; given that I get about 850 million junk e-mails every day, there's obviously a lot more where he came from. But for once the government did something right. The strange, depressing thing: Prosecutors estimated Carmack was making $60,000 to $70,000 annually before his arrest last May. Assuming that these estimates refer to his spam-related income, I have to wonder what kind of morons there are in this country. I'm not sure who buys "get-rich-quick schemes and sexual enhancers," but more importantly, who on earth buys them based on spam ? Are there really people who get one of those Vi@gra emails and think, "Gosh, I was going to go to a doctor, but ooh! Look at this colorful email! I'll just click on this unknown link and send my money to some anonymous person on the internet"? | |
|
