Jail terms and busts for EU cybercriminals

One case that received significant media attention was the sentencing of the British men who were accused of being part of the international piracy ring, known as DrinkorDie.com. According to Out-Law.com, three of the men received prison terms ranging from 18 months to two-and-a-half years, while a fourth man received a suspended sentence of 18 months. DrinkorDie, shut down in 2001 following an operation involving the FBI, the US Justice Department and several international police forces, was one of the most successful ‘warez’ groups, which strip copy protection code from proprietary software and then make it freely downloadable, on the Net. The group was seen as a type of ‘Robin Hood’ band that stole from rich corporates but gave it away freely. Judge Paul Focke told the defendants it was ‘impossible to quantify’ the loss to others caused by their scam. He added, according to BBC News, that their scam ‘struck at the heart’ of the software industry. Cracked software released by DrinkorDie has been found on pay-for-access Web sites in the US, China and elsewhere, says the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, which carried out the British end of the investigation. Full Out-Law.com report Full BBC News report Read another report on the IOL site

Another UK court has sentenced three men to prison after they pleaded guilty to involvement in an Internet drug dealing operation. The case is thought to be the first of its kind in the country, reports Out-Law.com. Law enforcement officials had been first alerted to the crime by banks concerned about unusual transactions involving the transfer of large sums of money. The drugs were being sold through a variety of password-protected Web sites. Full Out-Law.com report

And, the UK teenager who defrauded eBay customers out of more than £45 000 has been sentenced to 12 month’s detention and training, reports The Scotsman. Phillip Shortman had admitted to 21 counts of obtaining property by deception. According to the prosecution, over the period of a year, Shortman advertised goods for sale on the Internet auction site, which were never delivered to the buyer, even though payment had been made. As well as admitting the 21 charges, derived from complaints to police, Shortman also asked for 63 similar offences to be taken into consideration. The cash was spent on hiring limousines, going on holidays and buying designer clothes. Full report in The Scotsman

As part of a crackdown on online child pornography, law enforcement officials in eight European countries have questioned around 100 suspects. Swedish national police inspector Annethe Ahlenius described operation ‘Callidus’ as a ‘success’, noting that several suspects had been arrested, while others had been questioned and their computers seized. The raids took place in Sweden, Britain, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Malta, Norway and Poland, according to News24. The operation was the result of co-operation between members of a joint police action group, called Cospol, formed in November 2004 to combat Internet-related child pornography offences. Callidus was the first operation for the joint task force. Its aim is to track and shut down networks for the distribution, exchange and sale of material linked to sexual abuse of children, find the perpetrators, identify the children and put an end to the abuses. Full News24 report