Last modified: March 22, 2004, 8:50 AM PST/ @" O( O5 b; n: j
By Jo Best
. }6 y5 j* n1 a" ~! a0 {Special to CNET News.com4 \, v' w. M; ~
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. W2 H( u% n2 s6 g$ ]7 L3 r- aA California man has been charged with extortion, after allegedly making demands for $100,000 from search giant Google. - q" j2 a' c, a" c" ]
7 {; N! ~9 d1 C* G# v& w5 y) I' x+ lAccording to court papers, he claimed that if Google did not pay, he would release a piece of software to spammers that would generate fake advertising hits, costing the search giant millions. 5 `' ]* ^2 N# y; \6 O& G( I
+ q! _. Z/ Q; W! p) o& [2 W- cThe man, Michael Bradley, was so sure that the folks at Google would pay up, he even turned up at their offices for a meeting to sell his software. By then, federal law enforcement agents were already on the case and videotaped the alleged extortion attempt.
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The software Bradley designed would have flooded the Google advertisements with fake clicks, potentially costing the company millions of dollars. Google pays Web publishers a fee for each click on the pop-ups the site generates. He threatened to give the software to the top 100 spammers in the meeting with Google's officials, court papers released on Friday show. _1 l8 I! L4 O P6 c+ L% |% L
, x% o- ?" T8 RAccording to the papers, he also offered his services as a consultant engineer to help the search engine stop other advertising fraud. 7 d; H6 w; W# M6 H, k
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After he didn't hear back from the search engine staff about a payment, he allegedly sent an e-mail saying he would release the software to the public--and the spammers--the following week. He was then met by someone whom he likely expected to be a Google executive clutching a big bag of money but who turned out to be a federal agent with an arrest warrant.
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Bradley was released on $50,000 bail, on the condition that he has no contact with his computer or Google. + k& a3 J1 H' z% J! d4 k. L. V
7 T) R) V# t. t1 c0 M! X6 {8 y! X" ZJo Best of Silicon.com reported from London.: d& b6 q+ }% R* }: E$ K
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http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5176670.html?tag=mac.nn |
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發表於 2004-4-10 12:39:44
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