Great news. But, will this stop or even slow down spam? No. Even if they got half the spammers out there it would keep coming. Why? Too much easy money out there for the taking. Even if they got evey one who operates in the US we would still have a problem overseas . . . and I really doubt that any administration - yes even this one - would invade say Nigeria simply to cut down on spam. Anyway, how are we going to stop chineese spammers? Invade China? Ask their govenment to cut out illegal buisness practices? Yeah right. One spam king may fall, but another will rise in his place.

Yes. The old and the elderly, the easily convincable, the influencable people. They do not prey on the slashdot tech crowd (although sometime ones wonder), but on people who don't know better. They've been told that one can have good deals online, that you can find anything on there.

And you have to remember that there is not only porn and penis enlargement offer sent, but low mortgage loan offer, the chance to find a lost friend, travels or even online casinos deals. Poker is a big thing right now, and interests rates very low, its tempting for a lot of people.

Absolutely, it's still all nothing more than a single swirling rumour based on the valleywag IM, and the tantalising [google.com] yet plausible [google.com] contributions from some unknown poster on nanae [google.com].

But we all so want it to be true...

It's a waste of taxpayer dollars to go chasing after P2P "warez" traders. Petty, irresponsible and ridiculous. On the other hand, taking down someone who floods the internet with gigabytes, perhaps terabytes of garbage, slowing down the connections of businesses and individuals alike for personal gain, filling everyone's inboxes with lewd advertisements for porn and "enhancements"... There's simply no comparison here.

Which of the following wastes more of your time:

1. Spam
2. Unsubstantiated rumors on Slashdot

Personally, I have a pretty good spam filter so it's #2 by a large margin.

It's been interesting reading over the replies and how quickly mob mentality gets perpetuated. One dude wanted to beat him with a baseball bat until dead. Spam is annoying and intrusive, but what's spooky is how the witch-hunt sets in when so many people feed off each other. Besides, if you think this one bust is going to stop spam and phishing you're sadly mistaken. People need to be educated on email use just like they do for using their computer. The spam/phishing problem is largely an ignorance issue. Maybe Best Buy should start including some web-use educational material in that shrink wrap.

Here is an experiment we can try to help you understand how things got this way.

Let me come over and follow you around everwhere you go. At random intervals I shall tap you on the head from behind with a pencil. After you flip out (after an hour? a day?) and try to tear my head off, I will chastise you about your over-reaction, and how I was just tapping you with a pencil, etc. etc., and how I fear you might join a mob of People Against Pencil Tapping.

Now imagine if someone had been sending you 300 pencil taps a day for years.