FTC's 'speedy' action against Pricewert

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: June 6, 2009 10:31:26 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] FTC's 'speedy' action against Pricewert

[Note:  This item comes from friend Janos Gereben.  DLH]

From: janosG <janosg () gmail com>
Date: June 5, 2009 11:29:01 PM PDT
To: Dewayne <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Subject: FTC's 'speedy' action against Pricewert

<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cf6ff4a6-5167-11de-84c3-00144feabdc0.html>
US shuts 'criminal' internet service provider

By Joseph Menn in San Francisco

June 5 2009
The US Federal Trade Commission for the first time has sued and  
immediately shut down an internet service provider it accused of being  
a haven for a wide range of criminal activity, including child  
pornography and the electronic theft of personal banking data.

Acting just weeks after receiving information about Pricewert, an ISP  
in San Jose, the consumer-protection agency moved with the sort of  
speed many experts had given up hope of seeing.

Because a parallel criminal investigation aimed to seize hardware and  
logs from Pricewert with surprise, the FTC went to a federal judge for  
a temporary restraining order that pulled the plug before the company  
could respond. In another rare step, the judge directed everyone  
providing it with data storage services, internet addresses or  
connectivity to stop all such activity without notice.

"They are notorious," FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz told the Financial  
Times yesterday. "Almost anything that you can find that harms  
consumers on the internet, this ISP was involved in."

All of the Pricewert employees that investigators could track worked  
from Ukraine or Estonia, though the company was incorporated in Oregon  
and gave Belize as its base, the FTC said. The company owned the  
domain name 3FN.net and also used the name Triple Fiber Network. It  
sought clients through ads in Russian-language forums dedicated to  
identify theft and other crime.

[snip]
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