WrightAvia
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- Jul 15, 2002
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Spam rage leads to arrest
By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER
FBI agents have nabbed a Sunnyvale encryption software developer who allegedly made death threats against a Canadian Internet company he wrongly believed responsible for sending him penile enlargement ad e-mails.
The endless "want a bigger one?," "grow longer with the patch" and "add three inches" messages are a maddening plague upon most people's e-mail inboxes. Prosecutors allege they drove Charles T. Booher, 44, to distraction -- and onto the wrong side of the law.
Booher was arrested Thursday and is charged with making threatening interstate or foreign communications, a crime punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Seeborg of San Jose released him on a $75,000 bond. He is due back in court Dec. 11.
Prosecutors say Booher from this May through July made repeated threats against employees of DM Contact Management Inc. of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. In one e-mail, he allegedly said he was "sending a package full of anthrax spores to your address" and would "put a bullet in your head." In another e-mail, he allegedly said he would disable the company's president with a "quick 22-caliber shot to [his-- lower spine," then torture him with a "power drill and ice pick" after subduing him with "duck (sic) tape and plastic shrink wraps."
And in a voicemail message, Booher allegedly threatened to castrate the company's employees and kill them "with a shotgun and 30 rounds of ammunition and a hunting rifle" if they failed to "get your [expletive popups off my screen."
He allegedly kept sending these messages even after Sunnyvale Police ordered him to stop. An affidavit filed by an FBI agent says Booher admitted sending the messages, explaining he "is a testicular cancer survivor and he felt the e-mail messages in regard to penile enlargement were frustrating."
Booher was the developer of SecureOffice, a program that integrates into Microsoft Word, Excel, Access and Outlook to encrypt and password-protect files, e-mails and e-mail attachments.
He was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury in 1998 after he made this software available on the Internet without an export license, which regulations require for selling strong cryptography products outside the U.S. and Canada. No charges were ever filed against him in that matter.
A survey conducted earlier this year by McAfee Security found that, besides pornography, the most common types of e-mail spam are about refinancing (30 percent), credit counseling (27 percent) and sexual enhancement products (27 percent).
By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER
FBI agents have nabbed a Sunnyvale encryption software developer who allegedly made death threats against a Canadian Internet company he wrongly believed responsible for sending him penile enlargement ad e-mails.
The endless "want a bigger one?," "grow longer with the patch" and "add three inches" messages are a maddening plague upon most people's e-mail inboxes. Prosecutors allege they drove Charles T. Booher, 44, to distraction -- and onto the wrong side of the law.
Booher was arrested Thursday and is charged with making threatening interstate or foreign communications, a crime punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Seeborg of San Jose released him on a $75,000 bond. He is due back in court Dec. 11.
Prosecutors say Booher from this May through July made repeated threats against employees of DM Contact Management Inc. of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. In one e-mail, he allegedly said he was "sending a package full of anthrax spores to your address" and would "put a bullet in your head." In another e-mail, he allegedly said he would disable the company's president with a "quick 22-caliber shot to [his-- lower spine," then torture him with a "power drill and ice pick" after subduing him with "duck (sic) tape and plastic shrink wraps."
And in a voicemail message, Booher allegedly threatened to castrate the company's employees and kill them "with a shotgun and 30 rounds of ammunition and a hunting rifle" if they failed to "get your [expletive popups off my screen."
He allegedly kept sending these messages even after Sunnyvale Police ordered him to stop. An affidavit filed by an FBI agent says Booher admitted sending the messages, explaining he "is a testicular cancer survivor and he felt the e-mail messages in regard to penile enlargement were frustrating."
Booher was the developer of SecureOffice, a program that integrates into Microsoft Word, Excel, Access and Outlook to encrypt and password-protect files, e-mails and e-mail attachments.
He was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury in 1998 after he made this software available on the Internet without an export license, which regulations require for selling strong cryptography products outside the U.S. and Canada. No charges were ever filed against him in that matter.
A survey conducted earlier this year by McAfee Security found that, besides pornography, the most common types of e-mail spam are about refinancing (30 percent), credit counseling (27 percent) and sexual enhancement products (27 percent).
