Cybersquatter Faces Jail Time For Wire Fraud 55
Posted
by
ScuttleMonkey
from the it-isn't-true-till-i-see-a-summons dept.
from the it-isn't-true-till-i-see-a-summons dept.
coondoggie writes to mention that a Las Vegas man faces about 20 years in prison today after pleading guilty in a case where he impersonated intellectual property lawyers and tried to bully owners out of their domain names. "According to the FBI, David Scali is charged with registering an e-mail account under an alias and then sending e-mails in which he claimed to be the intellectual property lawyer. In the e-mails, which were sent in late June and early July of 2006, Scali threatened to file $100,000 trademark infringement lawsuits against the owners of various Internet website names unless they gave up their domain name registrations within two days."
Thats step 1 (Score:5, Insightful)
And step 2 is... (Score:4, Funny)
And do what, indict them for impersonating themselves?
Re:And step 2 is... (Score:4, Funny)
Choose your target (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Choose your target (Score:4, Insightful)
"Gee, lawyers are bloodsucking villains who will stop at nothing to win, I better just hand over the domain instead of fighting them in court. They're a LAWyer, after all, they must know the law!"
Reminds me of how a scientist seems much more trustworthy to the public if they're wearing a lab coat.
Re: (Score:2)
The law makes it so it is not too hard to verify that, a legitimate law firm needs to register with the bar, have a working contact number, etc (also they'd want to it order to get/do business).
Making sure the law firm exists and the threat was actually sent by them would be my first steps. Calling the police/FBI is step 2 if it was fake.
I knew something was fishy in his takedown request (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I knew something was fishy in his takedown requ (Score:4, Informative)
You mean Lionel Hutz. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Hutz [wikipedia.org]
If you are going to impersonate someone, at least impersonate the right person.
Darwin Awards - Legal Edition (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:1, Funny)
There can be only one (Score:3, Funny)
"The" intellectual property lawyer?
It's been just one person causing all this pain?
Re: (Score:2)
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20 years or only probation? Article says both. (Score:1)
A Las Vegas man faces about 20 years in prison today after he agreed to plead guilty...
The last sentence of the article says:
The plea agreement contemplates a sentence ranging from probation to six months in custody, but the sentencing judge will make the final decision as to what Scali's sentence will be.
20 years? Probation? 6 months? Oh, well, they're all close.
Re:20 years or only probation? Article says both. (Score:5, Informative)
Not necessarily jail time (Score:4, Informative)
"The plea agreement contemplates a sentence ranging from probation to six months in custody, but the sentencing judge will make the final decision as to what Scali's sentence will be."
In other words, the title of this article is very misleading.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
John Zuccarini [wikipedia.org] ended up serving more than a year in prison for cybersquatting, and this seems more serious to me.
Probation more likely than 20yrs jail time (Score:4, Informative)
Fyodor [insecure.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Just clumsy (Score:1, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Ignore legal threats (Score:4, Insightful)
"I'll see you in court then" is the only sensible response.
Re: (Score:2)
This is also why starting a corporation for most things and putting things in
Re:Ignore legal threats (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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The web interface is down for maintenance.
I don't get it. Linus isn't usually known for this level of subtlety.
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It's about time (Score:3, Insightful)
This sort of thing deserves closer policing. It is a drain on the time of registrars and registrants alike to have to deal with these sorts of charlatans.
I say throw the book at him (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Huh? Lawyers lie all the time. I wouldn't had known the difference.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
-Mike
To what end? (Score:2)
Straight from Gogol's drama (Score:1)
Nikolai Gogol's "Revizor" (The Inspector General)
Find the analogies, you mere humans.
Both were impostors of the scary overlords.
That this could work tells volumes about the country.
But? (Score:1)
Yes, actually. The cat does "got my tongue." (Score:1)