FTC Busts Domain Name Scammers 125
coondoggie writes "The Federal Trade Commission said today it had permanently killed the operations of a group that it said posed as domain name registrars and convinced thousands of US consumers, small businesses and non-profit organizations to pay bogus bills by leading them to believe they would lose their Web site addresses if they didn't. As with so many of these cases however, the defendants get off paying back very little compared to what they took. With today's settlement order, entered against defendants Isaac Benlolo, Kirk Mulveney, Pearl Keslassy, and 1646153 Ontario Inc., includes a suspended judgment of $4,261,876, the total amount of consumer injury caused by the illegal activities. Based on what the FTC called the inability of the settling defendants to pay, they will turn over $10,000 to satisfy the judgment."
What happened to debtor's prison? (Score:3, Insightful)
Another pointless FTC slap on the wrist (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly, I don't know why the FTC even bothers. If these clowns aren't criminally prosecuted, what exactly is the point? $10k, and an order to Go Forth and Sin No More is just a waste of time.
And the "Go Forth" orders are routinely ignored... I think Kevin Trudeau has been slapped by the FTC for infomercial scams no less than three times, and he still doesn't give a $hit.
SirWired
Re:Another pointless FTC slap on the wrist (Score:5, Insightful)
Riddle me this: Why is it that these guys get their judgement whittled to $10,000 for doing an active crime with victims, while some guy who left a directory full of songs on LimeWire gets stuck with a multi-million dollar amount that the only way it can be discharged is an immediate bankruptcy... and most likely a judge would turn that down?
Yes, IP violations are crimes, but scamming people out of money is a far greater crime than downloading the latest remix of "Oops I Did It Again."
I wish the FTC would have gone whole hog on these people, wage garnishment, tax return attached, property seized, etc. so the fine is paid.
Wrong business (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Another pointless FTC slap on the wrist (Score:5, Insightful)
The obvious lesson here is that if you *MUST* either download a song, or scam thousands of businesses out of hundreds of dollars each, the federal government wants you to NOT download the song. Why else would the punishment/fines be higher?
Re:4 million dollar scam = $10k? (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure, but is that nest egg able to be discovered by the lawyers? When you have that mush cash, it can't be TOO hard to figure out/find a way to hide some of it offshore.
Also, easy come, easy go. A lot of criminals spend cash like there's no tomorrow, because they know if they get caught, they forfeit it.
Besides, if I was an evil mastermind with untold millions, I'd spend it on the construction of an immense underwater fortress, and then kill all the people who knew the location. How are you going to find my money without a team of superheroes?!
Mwua-ha-ha.
Re:In due time... (Score:3, Insightful)
You're saying that since we have such comfy lives, we don't punish people for taking some of our stuff, since it's easy to replace.
I get the feeling that you're referring to some kind of resource scarce apocalyptic scenario where Thog hits Grog over the head with a relic broken-off parking meter[1] because Grog tried to take Thog's supper?
I don't know if the rule of law will disintegrate so quickly... but your ideas intrigue me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
[1] Bonus points for anyone who gets this reference.
Barbaric and unnecesarry (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem with debtor's prison is that people can fall into debt for all sorts of reasons ranging from maliciousness to recklessness to just plain bad luck. Do you really think that someone who can't pay their bills because a hurricane destroyed their house and their place of employment should be put in prison?
What you are looking for is thieves' prison and last time I checked we already have those. However, AFAIK [ftc.gov], the FTC doesn't have the authority to prosecute criminal cases, just levy civil fines. Instead they pass on information to the appropriate authorities (the FBI or state governments may have jurisdiction depending on the offense). In this case, either the FBI would need to extradite them to face charges here, or the Canadian government would need to press criminal charges.
Re:Discontent (Score:3, Insightful)
Amusingly, most white-collar criminals are actually republicans.
Amusingly, most white-collar criminals are actually democrats but spread the myth that such crooks are mostly republicans. B-)
Amusingly, most white-collar criminals are actually indifferent to political party and will claim whatever political affiliation they think will get them the maximum amount of leverage/sympathy/etc. possible. :-P
Hurray For Crime! (Score:3, Insightful)
Apparently the courts and the FTC actually seek to encourage crime. How is it with the overwhelming number of useless laws on the books that we do not have a single law that states that the wrong doer must always pay back more than was taken?
Re:DOA - Domains of America (Score:3, Insightful)
Are you trying to trick me?