Two Men Charged With Obscene Spam

BOSTON -- IT security and control firm Sophos has welcomed news that two men have been found guilty for their part in an international spam gang, which bombarded innocent internet users with explicit adult content.

A federal jury has convicted James R. Schaffer, of Paradise Valley, Arizona, and Jeffrey A. Kilbride, of Venice, California, on multiple charges including conspiracy, money laundering, fraud and transportation of obscene materials.

Spam sent by Schaffer and Kilbride, both 41 years old, resulted in America Online receiving more than 600,000 user complaints between January 30 and June 9, 2004. According to Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher, the spam messages, which were sent out to promote pornographic websites, grossed the two men more than two million dollars.

“This latest arrest once again validates that authorities are gaining ground when it comes to catching cyber criminals even it if takes years to actually convict and the list of convicted cybercriminal is growing globally,” said Ron O’Brien, senior security analyst at Boston-based Sophos. “The two men used a variety of tricks to try to cover up their whereabouts from authorities, including logging-in remotely to servers based in Amsterdam to make their spam messages appear to be of non-US origin, and using bank accounts in Mauritius and the Isle of Man."

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