FBI Posts Fake Hyperlinks To Trap Downloaders of Illegal Porn

mytrip brings us a story from news.com about an FBI operation in which agents posted hyperlinks which advertised child pornography, recorded the IP addresses of people who clicked the links, and then tracked them down and raided their homes. The article contains a fairly detailed description of how the operation progressed, and it raises questions about the legality and reliability of getting people to click "unlawful" hyperlinks. Quoting: "With the logs revealing those allegedly incriminating IP addresses in hand, the FBI sent administrative subpoenas to the relevant Internet service provider to learn the identity of the person whose name was on the account--and then obtained search warrants for dawn raids. The search warrants authorized FBI agents to seize and remove any "computer-related" equipment, utility bills, telephone bills, any "addressed correspondence" sent through the U.S. mail, video gear, camera equipment, checkbooks, bank statements, and credit card statements. While it might seem that merely clicking on a link wouldn't be enough to justify a search warrant, courts have ruled otherwise. On March 6, U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt in Nevada agreed with a magistrate judge that the hyperlink-sting operation constituted sufficient probable cause to justify giving the FBI its search warrant."

I would have read the article before replying

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

But I was afraid to click the link!

Re:I would have read the article before replying

[lorenlal]

I clicked it... As soon as I did, my phone rang... I'm scared.

Rest Assured

[explosivejared]

Spoofing as a link to a slashdot article would be about the least successful campaign of this type the FBI could conduct. Of all the billions and trillions of links out there, the link to an article on slashdot is going to get the fewest.

Google's I'm feeling lucky

[Psychotic_Wrath]

I'm feeling lucky with google can be kinda scary to use now

Re:How long until...

[Oktober Sunset]

It's gonn be the next goatse, if you thought making people look at a stretched out asshole was funny, think how much funnier getting thier houses raided by the FBI will be!

Is this Russia?

[junner518]

I was under the impression that the US was a free country without secret police, who even go to the lengths of manufacturing temptations to catch "criminals." Big Brother will be upon us soon enough...

Re:Free Beer!!

[theeddie55]

Yes, it is illegal. There are laws against false advertising. Unless you're now going to give me beer.

Re:How long until...

[Rakshasa Taisab]

I fail to see the difference; Do they not both involve stretching out of assholes?

Re:I could conduct stings for the fbi

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

Instead, walk round with a folder saying "NOT CHILD PORN", and arrest all the people who don't try to take the file. Wow! The power of logic!

Re:How long until...

[Anubis350]

from bash.org:

its me Where can i mk trilogy doiwnload???
  http://www.firstgov.gov/fgsearch/index.jsp?dom0=www.fbi.gov&mw0=warez+sodomy+porn+microsoft+illegal+MORTAL+KOMBAT+TRILOGY+DOWNLOAD+FREE&rn=218&in0=domain&parsed=true&Submit=Go&domain=fbi.gov [firstgov.gov]
  Just go here.
  garret its true or false
  It's true.
  I'm getting it at 400KB/s!
  garret its not true
  You clicked the link?
  yes garret and.....
  You do realize you just searched fbi.gov for warez, porn, sodomy, illegal, microsoft, and mortal kombat right?
  fuck ya all
* Quits: Guest17888 ([e-mail]9=) (QUIT: User exited)

also, from the classic bloodninja
eminemBNJA: Oh I like that Baby. I put on my robe and wizard hat.
BritneySpears14: What the f*ck, I told you not to message me again.
eminemBNJA: Oh ****
BritneySpears14: I swear if you do it one more time I'm gonna report your ISP and say you were sending me kiddie porn you f*ck up.
eminemBNJA: Oh ****
eminemBNJA: damn I gotta write down your names or something

Re:Stating the REALLY obvious problem

[RDW]

Indeed. We're all ignoring the real issue here - does generating a search warrant in response to clicking a link violate the Amazon One Click Order patent..?

Re:I would have read the article before replying

[SL Baur]

Kind of sad in a way. We used to do this sort of thing for fun.

I used to have a web page with a link that read "click on this to see the picture of a hot naked 10 year old female", which of course led to a digital photo of the female family dog.

Sigh. Gone are the days.

Re:"pedos deserve it"?

[Bastard of Subhumani]

At the moment, i can say all the nasty things i want about the current regime and be fine.

Despite what all the paranoid loonies say about him, Bush hasn't made the USA into a police state. Nowhere near. Not saying I agree with him, there's certainly a case to answere about the Iraq war and all the money he's been making from his pals in the oil indu BRB, someone at the door.

How to end this thing

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Identify one of these fake links (sounds hard, but there's a few potential posted already in this article)

2. Craft an e-mail to legislators that think this sort of surveillance is a good idea. Create the e-mail as a genuine message you would send to such a person, such as discussing their position on a particular bill.

3. Include links in your e-mail. Some to valid sites discussing the effects of the bill. Others are malicious XSS attacks that will direct $legislator to these fake links.

4. Use coffee shop/library wifi (since they don't keep logs usually), a spoofed MAC address, and a mail relay across the pond to send the message.

5. Lather, rinse, repeat until enough high ranking officials have been busted and see this as a bad idea.

I know, I'm dreaming, but imaging the possibilities.....

Re:Held off cops for 27 minutes

[Tony Hoyle]

Vosburgh told authorities that the computer had been destroyed earlier to get rid of a virus.

I'd heard Norton could destroy computers... but Literally? Wow.

Re:I would have read the article before replying

[operagost]

i am in china and so out of the juristiction of the fbi, so i was able to rtfa without much fear of retribution.

Caution: irony overload!

Re:I would have read the article before replying

[Hatta]

Unless the FBI people were complete idiots

So almost certainly.