Two brothers used the University of Missouri computer network in a national spamming operation that allegedly culled e-mail addresses from more than 2,000 colleges and bombarded them with messages, prosecutors alleged Wednesday.
The spammers developed e-mail extracting programs that harvested more than eight million student e-mail addresses, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. They allegedly sold more than $4.1-million in products in at least 31 spam e-mail marketing campaigns, inflicting damage on the University of Missouri network in the process.
The brothers — Amir Ahmad Shah, 28, and Osmaan Ahmad Shah, 25 — are both University of Missouri graduates, according to The Kansas City Star. Osmaan Shah remains enrolled as a business graduate student, the newspaper reported. —Marc Parry
