Spammer Gets Message

To have any chance of making easy money on the Internet, computer geek Howard Carmack knew he had to send more than a million junk e-mails every day.

And to avoid being detected by Internet companies that try to block the nuisance messages, he needed to become devious.

So to keep his annoying spam flowing across the Web and into the in-boxes of hundreds of thousands of e-mail users, the 36-year-old stole the identities of strangers and hacked into their e-mail accounts, investigators have learned - and he also betrayed members of his own family.

Carmack not only stole his uncle Joseph's identity; his mentally disabled brother, James Jr., was also a victim, according to court papers.

Last week, Carmack was charged by the State Attorney General's Office with four felony counts and two misdemeanors for allegedly using false identities and stolen credit-card or bank-account information to create 343 e-mail accounts through which he sent about 825 million spam messages.

The spam offered products for sale from herbal sexual stimulants, to bulk e-mail lists, to get-rich-quick schemes - and even spam-blocking devices - prosecutors said.

View: Complete Article @ NYPost.com