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back to article Man who blasted five million text spams gets wrist slap

Federal authorities have issued a token wrist slap to a California man for sending at least 5 million text-message spams and harvesting the personal information of recipients against their wishes. Phil Flora of Huntington Beach, California, agreed to pay $32,000 to settle charges brought in February by the Federal Trade …

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  1. nyelvmark

    His fingers...

    ...must be really sore. No wonder the judge felt sorry for him.

    4 0
  2. David 45
    Unhappy

    Not enough!

    Should be locked up and the key thrown away.

    4 1
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is what's wrong with the U.S. judicial system

    It rewards criminals.

    2 0
    1. GitMeMyShootinIrons
      Reply Icon

      My sympathies....

      The UK is similar. Too many do-gooder liberals in the legal profession, too much protection for the 'rights' of criminals, often to the detriment to the victims.

      3 1
    2. Shannon Jacobs
      Reply Icon
      Holmes

      There's a reason for that

      The laws were written by corrupt professional politicians working primarily for the most corrupt businessmen. Most businesspeople are fine, upstanding folks who just want to play the economic game by the rules--but the are NOT the ones who are 'investing' in the pols.

      1 1
      1. GitMeMyShootinIrons
        Reply Icon

        I agree....

        But let's not forget the politicos 'funded' by unions to support their vested interests too. As much as corrupt business types have stuffed up, the unions are as much to blame - unrealistic demands, grabbing for power, demanding politicians doff their hats to them.

        They're all as bad - what we need is politicians divorced from both sides of the coin.

        Maybe Alien overlords should be given a go...

        0 0
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is there an admission of guilt/wrongdoing? If so he will get sued.

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  5. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Let the punishment fit the crime

    Release him after he's personally texted an apology to each spam recipient

    3 0
  6. IglooDude

    Hmmm

    I eagerly await his being targeted by Anonymous. Surely they would enjoy making his life miserable via electronic means?

    0 0
  7. Conrad Longmore
    Terminator

    4 years, 9 months

    If it takes 30 seconds to deal with an SMS spam and he sent 5 million of them, then he owes society 2.5 million minutes or 41,666 hours, 1,736 days or approximately 4 years and 9 months of either punishment or payback.

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  8. All names Taken
    Paris Hilton

    maybe he belongs to the same Lodge as the judge?

    3 0
  9. evs
    Facepalm

    At 10c per text

    The telcos should be happy to pay this fee (hard to call it a fine with a straight face) out of the $500,000 they potentially netted.

    0 0
    1. Vic
      Reply Icon

      He won't have paid 10c per text

      > the $500,000 they potentially netted

      ...Will be substantially less than that.

      I can get texts within the UK (where I live) for 3.1c (2.7p) each, and that's at much smaller volumes than this guy was sending.

      Vic.

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      1. Galidron
        Reply Icon
        Stop

        This was in the use

        Every person he sent a text to paid at least $0.20 to receive the text unless they have an unlimited texting plan. And that is before what it cost him to send the texts.

        0 0
  10. Big-nosed Pengie
    Facepalm

    And some poor bastard caught smoking a joint gets years in the slammer.

    Justice, US style.

    1 0
  11. Chika
    Holmes

    A can of Spam?

    Oh yes. I heard of this law. I remember that it was originally supposed to be the tough do-all law that would be the death of internet spam in a similar way to the US law on fax spam. That was a long time ago now, but I'm still getting the giggles over that one!

    We really should have a "law is an ass" icon for stories like this!

    1 0
  12. Winkypop Silver badge
    Devil

    I have a soft spot for spammers....

    ...it's a swampy section down at the local cemetery.

    6 0
  13. Ian Chard
    WTF?

    loanmod-gov.net

    is currently serving a single file that looks like Cisco firmware. Odd.

    0 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Linux

      Null Route

      That domain is Null Routed (meaning its pointing to 127.0.0.1 or ::1)

      The firmware is being served up from your box.

      Non-authoritative answer:

      Name: loanmod-gov.net

      Addresses: ::1

      127.0.0.1

      0 0
  14. earl grey
    FAIL

    Gitmo for this lizard

    Well, really; he's not UP to lizard class yet.

    0 0
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