Spam

Cyber-crime pays. But selling counterfeit drugs apparently pays better. Some of the world's most prolific spammers used to tout products for a few pennies per million e-mails or con consumers into forking over credit card information. But these groups have found that the most profit and growth potential lies in actually shipping the fake Viagra and other products they're hawking, according to a study scheduled for release today by a top security researcher.

MySpace can collect $6 million from a notorious Internet marketer accused by the popular online hangout of spamming its users. An arbitrator has ruled that Scott Richter and his Web marketing company, Media Breakaway of Westminster, Colo., must pay MySpace $4.8 million in damages and $1.2 million in attorney's fees for barraging MySpace members with unsolicited advertisements. Media Breakaway and its employees were also banned from the site. MySpace, a unit of News Corp.

The volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide may have dropped drastically Wednesday after a San Jose Web-hosting firm, identified by many in the computer security community as a major host of organizations engaged in spam activity, was taken offline. McColo Co., which computer security experts say serves as a U.S. staging ground for international firms that sell items including counterfeit pharmaceuticals and child pornography, ceased operations after two Internet providers blocked Web access.

Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates' 2004 proclamation that the spam problem would be solved within two years has proved a bitter joke, with unsolicited messages doubling yearly to make up about 90% of mail transmitted on the Internet. But this week, the tide turned. The number of unwanted, offensive and misleading e-mails sent across the globe plummeted by about two-thirds, to a mere 60 billion or so a day by Thursday, according to spam filtering companies.

Facebook Inc. has struck back against spammers, winning an $873-million judgment against a Canadian man accused of sending millions of unsolicited messages about drugs and sex. The popular social networking site said Adam Guerbuez tricked its members into revealing their passwords to send out messages. Guerbuez did not appear in court to defend himself, Facebook said, although the company says it has video of him being served the lawsuit. U.S.

An Azusa man who defrauded users of Time Warner Inc.'s America Online unit by sending e-mails requesting credit data became the first defendant found guilty by a jury under a 2003 federal law barring Internet spam. Jeffrey Goodin, 45, was convicted under the 2003 Can-Spam Act, the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles said Tuesday. The statute prohibits sending unsolicited e-mail messages with falsified header, or return address, information.

Last September, Internet spam messages touting the stock of Covina-based Healtheuniverse Inc. started landing in e-mail in-boxes across the country. The "hot biopharmaceutical stock," the messages promised, was "getting ready to explode!!!" It did -- for two days. Amid a surge in trading volume, the share price nearly doubled, to 22 cents, before declining steadily over the following week and eventually falling below its pre-spam price.

MySpace.com sued Sanford Wallace, who became known as the King of Spam in the 1990s, for setting up dummy profiles to direct MySpace users to websites such as Real-vegas-sins.com. Wallace created 11,000 fake profiles using automated software programs in violation of MySpace's terms of use agreement, the company said in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. MySpace's complaint, which seeks unspecified damages, accuses Wallace of violating the 2003 U.S.

From his 17th-floor Seattle apartment overlooking Puget Sound, Robert Alan Soloway allegedly ran an illicit network of computers around the world, secretly commandeering the machines of thousands of unsuspecting bystanders. Prosecutors say Internet users who clicked on infected e-mails and websites inadvertently took part in his criminal endeavor: spam.

Spam is now being served in audio form. The latest in unwanted electronic communication is an MP3 file that began landing in in-boxes around the world last week. It features a spooky, synthesized Darth Vader-sounding female voice touting the over-the-counter stock of Exit Only Inc. "Hello, this is an investor alert!" the halting, at times unintelligible, voice says. Her pitch invokes the growth prospects of Exit Only, a website operator that runs Text4Cars.