Microsoft’s Global Phishing Enforcement Initiative (GPEI), a crack team of sharp-fanged lawyers, has just managed to get a phisher convicted, imprisoned, and heftily fined.
<applause>
Let’s give credit where credit is due, and hope this is the first of many.
This is awesome news. Finally, some justice!
Personally, for spammers, I’d like to see the reinstatement of corporal punishment. Let their family, friends, and the general public look on as they get punished for being behind the single biggest nuisance of the modern age.
A little extreme? Perhaps… but I think it might even be a little light considering how many people they annoy! :)
Although talk of corporal punishment in legal systems that don’t generally use it is getting a bit fanciful, I do think that this sort of crime should potentially be given a serious punishment, particularly where it involves fraud.
I also think that any punishment handed down in serious cases should also be accompanied by a court order banning the offender from using any networked computer for a long time (backed up by some suitably deterrent sanction for contempt of court if the ban is not heeded). If their presence on the net is so detrimental to so many people, why should they be allowed anywhere near it?