UK spammer 'WeaselBoy' arrested

Peter Francis Macrae, believed to be the UK's most prodigious spammer, has been arrested by Cambridgeshire police.

Macrae's arrest relates to threats he made to kill members of the police force and a trading standards officer who was investigating his business.

Macrae, who goes by the alias of 'Weaselboy', was also charged with causing a public nuisance, relating to a denial-of-service attack which he allegedly launched against the police force switchboard.

Macrae, from St Neots in Cambridgeshire, is the only UK resident on The SpamHaus Project's Register Of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO). Effectively a 'who's who' of the spam world, it lists approximately 800 names believed to be the worst offenders.

Steve Linford from SpamHaus told silicon.com Macrae will remain on the list for at least the next sixth months, even if convicted, but hailed his arrest as "brilliant news".

However, Steve Purdham, CEO of Surfcontrol, told silicon.com: "It's good to see one of these guys arrested but it really is the tip of the iceberg - it will make no difference to volume of spam in our inboxes. It's a political win, but it's still negligible in the grand scheme of things."

Purdham added that there is still no meaningful legal deterrent against sending spam and believes the fact Macrae has been arrested for offences other than sending spam is evidence of that.

Linford said: "There aren't any laws in Britain which could be used to get Macrae. British laws on spam are pretty rubbish."

However, he believes that doesn't make the conviction any less relevant or meaningful, adding that Cambridgeshire police may have opted for the charge of public nuisance because it carries heavier penalties and sentences.

Linford added that in the US the situation is repeated: "None of the spammers in the US are really being convicted under Can Spam. They are typically getting them under traditional fraud laws - for the sale of fraudulent goods or financial fraud."

Linford said although Macrae is the only UK resident on ROKSO he is not the only UK-based spammer.

"There are other UK spammers but they are not serious enough to be on ROKSO," he said. "That is for the real hardcore spammers."