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| A man who scammed hundreds of internet users has
been sentenced to six years in jail. |
Experts at Sophos have welcomed the news that British spammer
Peter Francis-Macrae has been sentenced to six years in prison for
fraud and other crimes.
23-year-old Francis-Macrae, who went by the online moniker of
"Weaselboy", is said to have earned more than £100,000 a week by
selling bogus .eu internet domain names from his father's house in
St Neots, Cambridgeshire.
Businesses who complained about being sold the domain names were
mail-bombed with millions of junk emails, and investigating police
officers were told that their headquarters would be
petrol-bombed.
Francis-Macrae was found guilty at Peterborough Crown Court of
fraudulent trading, concealing criminal property, threatening to
destroy or damage property, blackmail, and making death threats.
Investigators claim that he has refused to divulge where he has
hidden more than £1.1 million.
Francis-Macrae sent unsolicited emails to thousands of people
offering to pre-register .eu domain names before they were released
by the regulatory body. He spent his fortune on designer clothes
and helicopter lessons.
"Peter Francis-Macrae's stiff sentence sends out a clear message
to others who may be tempted to engage in internet crime. The
details of how he threatened those who got in the way of his crime
spree make harrowing reading," said Carole Theriault, senior
security consultant for Sophos. "We hope other young people will
think twice before making the mistakes this man made, and not be
tempted by a life of cybercrime. The public can consider themselves
safer now Francis-Macrae is behind bars."
"You deceived hundreds of people of countless thousands of
pounds of their money. When investigated, following the countless
complaints of your misdeeds, you resorted to threats to kill and a
threat to set fire to property, and ultimately blackmail," said
Judge Nicholas Coleman. "Whoever stood in the way of your
criminality became subject to abuse and threats. You are, I think,
one of the most vindictive young men I have ever seen."
Detective Constable Jody Faro told reporters after the hearing
that police had dealt with more than 2000 complaints around the
globe about Francis-Macrae's business dealings.
Sophos recommends companies protect themselves with a consolidated solution which can defend businesses
from the threats of both spam and viruses.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.