Buffalo Spammer Sentenced

This week, Judge Michael D'Amico of Erie County, New York,sentenced Howard Carmack, the so-called Buffalo Spammer, to 3 1/2 to 7years in prison after a jury convicted Carmack of illegally sendingmore than 850 million junk email messages through ISP accounts heopened by using stolen identities. "I obviously regret this wholeinvolvement," Carmack said, although astonishingly he admitted nowrongdoing and said his crime was victimless. "I don't see anyvictims," he said. Judge D'Amico disagreed. "I'm having a heck of atime figuring out why you think everybody is unfair to you," he saidas he dropped the maximum possible sentence on the recalcitrantspammer. "You think it's OK to take somebody's identity and use it forwhatever purpose you want. You caused a great deal of harm to a lot ofpeople." According to Earthlink, Carmack created almost 350 emailaccounts by using stolen identities, then used those accounts to sendout mountains of spam. Separately, Earthlink has already won a $16.4million civil judgment against the spammer, who--in my opinion--can'tbe put on ice long enough.