Got SPAM email? Here is why....

[Tamianth]

Got SPAM email? Here is why....

Post by DaFox on Fri Mar 06, 2015 11:57 am

I just posted this in 800notes:
http://800notes.com/forum/ta-bc59d52fb8 ... ere-is-why

From:
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/three-def ... us-history
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
Friday, March 6, 2015

Three Defendants Charged with One of the Largest Reported Data Breaches in U.S. History
One Of The Defendants Has Already Pleaded Guilty

An indictment was unsealed yesterday against two Vietnamese citizens who resided in the Netherlands, for their roles in hacking email service providers throughout the United States. The guilty plea of one of the defendants was also unsealed at the same time. In addition, a federal grand jury returned an indictment this week against a Canadian citizen for conspiring to launder the proceeds obtained as a result of the massive data breach.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney John A. Horn of the Northern District of Georgia, Special Agent in Charge J. Britt Johnson of the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Reginald Moore of the United States Secret Service’s (USSS) Atlanta Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Veronica F. Hyman-Pillot with the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation’s (IRS-CI) made the announcement.

“These men — operating from Vietnam, the Netherlands, and Canada — are accused of carrying out the largest data breach of names and email addresses in the history of the Internet,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “The defendants allegedly made millions of dollars by stealing over a billion email addresses from email service providers. This case again demonstrates the resolve of the Department of Justice to bring accused cyber hackers from overseas to face justice in the United States.”

“This case reflects the cutting-edge problems posed by today’s cybercrime cases, where the hackers didn’t target just a single company; they infiltrated most of the country’s email distribution firms,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Horn. “And the scope of the intrusion is unnerving, in that the hackers didn’t stop after stealing the companies’ proprietary data—they then hijacked the companies’ own distribution platforms to send out bulk emails and reaped the profits from email traffic directed to specific websites.”

“Large scale and sophisticated international cyber hacking rings are becoming more problematic for both the law enforcement community that is faced with the challenges of identifying them and laying hands on them, but also the fortune 500 companies that are so often their targets,” said Special Agent in Charge Johnson. “The federal indictments, apprehensions and extraditions in this case represents several years of hard work as the FBI and its cadre of cyber trained agents and technical experts acted quickly to stop the ongoing damage to the numerous victim companies as a result of these individuals’ hacking activities. In August 2012, the FBI, with the assistance of its legal attaches stationed abroad and in conjunction with Dutch law enforcement officials, executed a search warrant in the Netherlands that disrupted continued compromises of those companies while allowing U.S. authorities to advance its investigation. That investigation targeted not only the hackers but the businesses that helped monetize the data that was stolen from those victim companies. This case further reflects the productive partnership of the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service in aggressively addressing this 21st century crime problem.”

“Our success in this case and other similar investigations is a result of our close work with our law enforcement partners,” said Special Agent in Charge Moore. “The Secret Service worked closely with the Department of Justice and the FBI to share information and resources that ultimately brought these cyber criminals to justice. This case demonstrates there is no such thing as anonymity for those engaging in data theft and fraudulent schemes.”

“Those individuals who line their pockets with money gained through deceiving others should know they will not go undetected and will be held accountable,” said Special Agent in Charge Hyman-Pillot. “IRS Criminal Investigation is committed to unraveling financial transactions to ensure that those who engage in these illegal activities are vigorously investigated and brought to justice.”

According to allegations in the indictments, between February 2009 and June 2012, Viet Quoc Nguyen, 28, a citizen of Vietnam, allegedly hacked into at least eight email service providers (ESPs) throughout the United States and stole confidential information, including proprietary marketing data containing over one billion email addresses. Nguyen, along with Giang Hoang Vu, 25, also a citizen of Vietnam, then allegedly used the data to send “spam” to tens of millions of email recipients. The data breach was the largest in U.S. history and was the subject of a Congressional inquiry in June 2011.

David-Manuel Santos Da Silva, 33, of Montreal, Canada, was also indicted by a federal grand jury on March 4, 2015, for conspiracy to commit money laundering for helping Nguyen and Vu to generate revenue from the “spam” and launder the proceeds.

According to allegations in the indictments, Da Silva, the co-owner, president and a director of 21 Celsius Inc., a Canadian corporation that ran Marketbay.com, entered into an affiliate marketing arrangement with Nguyen that allowed the defendants to generate revenue from the computer intrusions and data thefts.

As an affiliate marketer, Nguyen allegedly received a commission on sales generated from Internet traffic that he directed to websites promoting specific products. Nguyen allegedly used the information stolen from the ESPs to send “spam” emails to tens of millions of customers and provided hyperlinks to allow the purchase of the products. These products were marketed by Da Silva’s Marketbay.com.

Between approximately May 2009 and October 2011, Nguyen and Da Silva received approximately $2 million for the sale of products derived from Nguyen’s affiliate marketing activities.

Vu was arrested by Dutch law enforcement in Deventer, Netherlands, in 2012 and extradited to the United States in March 2014. On Feb. 5, 2015, Vu pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit computer fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 21, 2015, before U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. of the Northern District of Georgia. Nguyen is a fugitive.

Da Silva was arrested based upon charges set forth in a criminal complaint at Ft. Lauderdale International Airport on Feb. 12, 2015, and is scheduled to be arraigned today in Atlanta before Magistrate Judge E. Clayton Scofield III.

The charges contained in an indictment are merely accusations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

This case is being investigated by the FBI with the assistance of the USSS and IRS-CI. Law enforcement in the Netherlands and the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs also provided valuable assistance. This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Peter Roman of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven D. Grimberg of the Northern District of Georgia.
15-274
Criminal Division
Cyber Crime
Updated March 6, 2015

_________________
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Sent via The Great Fox Trail, which is long and twisted, and generally ends where it begins.

[Tamianth]

by BigA on Fri Mar 06, 2015 12:53 pm
I have noticed that my spam has gone down quite a bit, not sure if this is why or not. I was getting close to 75 a day, sometimes more. Now maybe 20.

[Tamianth]

by DaFox on Sat Mar 07, 2015 4:14 am
It has up ticked on my end.
My email provider has a spam protection system, but more and more are slipping through.
I have noticed the bulk are coming for obviously faked domains but using a "three word" domain, like:
@blahblah.somewhere.com
I wish my provider would let me filter by "more than two word domains", as I never correspond even with legit ones, like:
@google.com.uk

[Tamianth]

by BigA on Sat Mar 07, 2015 6:04 am
The ones that are getting through with me the most seem to AOL accounts. Probably hijacked. I am still trying to figure out how to forward them all to AOL.

[Tamianth]

by CelticDragon on Sat Mar 07, 2015 11:21 am
Wait...Netherlands...that one hosting company-RIPE I think-that's BASED out of the Netherlands? Coincidence? I think not!

[Tamianth]

by BigA on Sat Mar 07, 2015 12:51 pm
As long as we have a thread about this, I heard a story on the radio about an E mail going around again where they claim they are a hit man, and they are going to kill the recipient unless they pay them $15,000. They claim to have people watching the intended victim 24/7 and that if they do not pay they will proceed with the hit. I know this is an old scam, but if it is starting to go around again, I thought everyone here should be aware of it.

[Tamianth]

by Tamianth on Sat Mar 07, 2015 3:11 pm
So far its been pretty good on my end. No spam in my home addy at all. A few in yahoo, and nothing in my gmail! Thanks for the warning though Big A..

[Tamianth]

by CelticDragon on Sat Mar 07, 2015 4:36 pm
I got one today that hit a LITTLE too close to home-the subject was that District Pink and part of my address!

[Tamianth]

by Sir Bedevere on Mon Mar 09, 2015 8:34 am
They don't seem to mention which email providers got hit, which would be interesting information to have. But it illustrates why I never use webmail service providers like Gmail or Hotmail. I stick to my own domain name and my hosting provider's mail servers (plus my .edu account from work). I get very little spam these days, even with absolutely no filtering. I use my postmaster@ account for almost all my correspondence and hit hack fast at any domain that sends spam.

C.D. – RIPE isn't a hosting company, it's a Regional Domain Registry (not registrar); they coordinate the assignment and management of IP address blocks throughout Europe – they're the equivalent of ARIN, which coordinates these matters in North America.

[Tamianth]

by RustyMcNuggets on Mon Mar 09, 2015 9:00 am
Funny you should mention that Bedevere. At my work they have the company email running through gmail, but with our "companyname.com". Anyway, we all came into our office and a few of the employees came to find their email is no longer valid. Almost as if someone hacked into their company accounts and deleted or deactivated them. Not sure, but I do know some have their company email account linked to their personal account so they receive the company emails through their personal gmail account as well.

We have seen some interesting issues regarding email and internet occurring lately.