An Indiana man will be sent to prison for helping send millions of illegal spam messages to the United Sates as well as international cellphones and computers. He has been sentenced to 27 months in federal prison by a Pennsylvania federal judge.
In a report by NWI Times, the man in question has been identified as 31-year-old Philip Fleitz. He was scheduled for sentencing on Monday. Prosecutors reportedly want him to serve more than two years behind bars. This is due to the fact that Fleitz was already on probation for driving under the influence when he was charged in the international spamming case and he has also failed drug tests since he was arrested.
Two of the co-defendants of Fleitz were previously sentenced to probation only for their roles in the international spam case and the defense attorney, Stephen Capone, said that his client should receive a similar sentence. However, U.S. Attorney Jimmy Kitchen said that Fleitz was the "architect" in the spamming case and it was his idea, Phys.org reported.
The two co-defendants have been identified as 27-year-old Naveed Ahmed and Dewayne Watts, whose age has not been mentioned. Ahmed wrote a program to help matching the phone numbers with the carriers while Watts wrote the text messages so as phone users will respond to the messages.
Basically, the messages had internet links that said the receivers won gift cards that are only accessible when the links are clicked. However, in truth, those who clicked the links were routed to Web pages controlled by Internet Cost Per Action networks, ABC News reported.
Fleitz did say that he operated the computer servers in China and they used this to infiltrate personal computers in the United States and abroad. He also said, "I just want to say I'm sorry."
Fleitz was one of the 12 U.S. residents who were charged with marketing illegal computers kills on a cybercriminal market place, which was shut down by the FBI last July. The site was identified as Darkode.com and Fleitz, together with the two men, earned around $2,000 to $3,000 weekly.
They violated a 2003 law designed to protect cellphone and computer users from unwanted marketing and pornography-related emails and text messages. A total of 70 people were targeted in the spamming case and most of them are from the U.S. and 19 other countries.
