Several college students were indicted this past week, charged with fraud and email spamming. The email spamming scheme crippled the networks of colleges and universities all in an attempt to sell products to fellow students.  The method in which the spamming was done has come under fire.

According to Ars Technica, four individuals were indicted by a federal grand jury in Missouri in connection with an email spamming scheme. The scheme is said to have affected more than 2,000 colleges and universities in the U.S. All four individuals were charged with email fraud, conspiracy and violation of CAN-SPAM Act, amongst other allegations.

According to reports, the individuals sold more than $4.1 million worth of products to college students in the email scheme. The scheme involved the students mining over 8 million student email addresses illegally.  One of the individuals started the spamming scheme while attending the University of Missouri.

According to the US Department of Justice:

The university also expended a substantial amount of time, money and resources to respond to and repair problems caused by the spam e-mail campaigns and to protect and defend its network from future spam e-mail campaigns.

The individuals covered their tracks extensively by routing their spam through China as well as setting up dozens of Web sites in order to cover their tracks. The indictment would require the individuals behind the scheme to payout $4.1 million in proceeds along with residential properties and vehicles purchased.

Email spamming is definitely a growing problem that many are facing currently. College campuses have become a hot spot for such activities as access to mainframe systems and FTPs are lax for students who need it for class use. With spam filters failing to catch the latest schemes, education is probably the best solution in helping reduce such incidents.

Related:

Entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 1:37 am under Crime, Security, Spam.

Read more entries by Mike Ferro.
Stumble It!