Tsunami spam scammer cuffed

Feds swoop on 'rank amateur'

A man from Pittsburgh has had his collar felt by the FBI after allegedly sending out 800,000 bogus Tsunami appeal emails, Silicon reports.

Matthew Schmieder was quickly traced by UK spambusters Spamhaus after attempting to fleece netizens of cash with his "fundraising messages". Spamhaus' Steve Linford noted that the swift apprehension of the "rank amateur" ne'er-do-well was due to his failure to cover his tracks.

Linford noted: "He had very little in place by way of defences and upon first seeing the emails we were able to very quickly track him down to Pittsburgh. He lived right around the corner from the FBI offices there and they were able to leave the office and pick up him right away." ®

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