At SpamStopsHere, we’ve seen many signs over the years that at least a third of the spam is sent from just a few spam gangs. Most of these appear to be based in China or Russia. I’d personally always assumed that the gangs would never be stopped, as they’re beyond the legal reach of the U.S. justice system.

However, an Associated Press article by Lara Jakes Jordan, entitled “38 charged in international phishing scheme“, reports that some phishing scammers were extradited from Bulgaria to face charges here in U.S. federal court. More information is in the FBI press release.

I’m not sure what kind of signal this is sending to the spammers. If they just concentrate on illegally sending spam for counterfeit drugs we’ll look the other way, but if they start stealing money from those they send the spam to, then they should be afraid? I don’t see a big distinction between stealing the money from a spam victim and having them give their money willingly using deception and misleading advertisements. Although perhaps we’ll start seeing “regular” spammers being targeted by the U.S. justice system as well.

Additionally, perhaps Attorney General Mukasey’s “Law Enforcement Stategy to Combat International Organized Crime” will be targeting international spam gangs, if they’re actually controlled by organized crime, as many anti-spam organizations theorize. When you rule a venture illegal that makes billions annualy, you’re bound to drive it into the hands of organized crime. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and various state laws over the years have driven spam from the hands of scummy entrepreneurs to organized crime. If they were still filming the televsion series “The Sopranos”, I can imagine an episode where Tony Soprano hires some Romanian teens to set up his spam shop.

Either way, stopping phishers and deterring the crime internationally is a step in the right direction at making our inboxes safe and spam free. I hope that this isn’t the only result that we get from the attorney general’s recent organized crime initiative. Although I actually hope that the spammers retire rather than come stay in our jails.