Disgruntled Phillies Fan Arrested for E-Mail Spams

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Federal officers arrested a disgruntled Philadelphia Phillies baseball fan in California on charges of hacking into computers and sending thousands of spam e-mails to sports writers at two Philadelphia newspapers, officials said.

Allan Eric Carlson, 39, was arrested on Tuesday at his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale and charged with hacking, spoofing return addresses, launching spam attacks and identity theft for using fake e-mail addresses, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in Philadelphia.

Carlson was arrested by the agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Despite a competitive season, the Phillies failed to win a spot in Major League Baseball's championship playoffs.

The spam messages were critical of Phillies management and the media including one that had a subject line reading, Corrupt Philly Media Keeps Phils in Cellar, according to the indictment.

Carlson used fake return addresses, belonging to sports reporters at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, the indictment said.

Because many of the e-mail addresses the spam was sent to were bad, they bounced back to the reporters' e-mail accounts, crippling the servers where they were stored, according to the indictment.
Reuters