Superbot spammer facing 50 years in jail

A computer spammer who hijacked thousands of computers and used them to launch massive ad attacks has been arrested by the FBI and faces charges that could see him serve 50 years in jail if convicted, new reports from Los Angeles said.

Jeanson Ancheta, 20, is accused of infecting armies of computers with malicious software that turned them into “bots” to launch destructive attacks on servers and send huge quantities of unwanted ads and emails, according to prosecutors. Among the computers he allegedly infected were systems at the highly sensitive US Naval Air Warfare Centre.

Ancheta even advertised his spam army on an Internet chat channel, prosecutors allege, and made some 60,000 dollars by renting out his legions of hijacked computers to spammers who bombarded some 400,000 surfers with adware, spyware and pop-up advertising screens.

Ancheta was arrested Thursday and is expected to make a court appearance in the coming days.

If convicted of all 17 charges in the indictment, Ancheta faces up to 50 years in prison, according to prosecutors, who are demanding that Ancheta surrender more than 60 000 dollars in cash, his BMW car and computer equipment. (dpa)