NEW ORLEANS — The FBI was at the DMA's fall show yesterday. But there was no stakeout or security threat — just an update on cybercrime and the FBI's joint Operation Slam Spam effort with the DMA.
Daniel J. Larkin, chief of the Internet Crime Complaint Center at the FBI, spoke to 30-40 CEOs of international DMAs to familiarize them about cybercrime and to engage the industry domestically and internationally.
“More and more every day, my job is marketing,” Larkin said in an interview afterward. “It's about marketing these cases to law enforcement and prosecutors out there and getting them to understand why it's important, why there's so much impact with industry.”
One year since the initiative was announced, Larkin said Slam Spam is going well. Now, the FBI wants to spin part of the effort into phishing/identity theft.
“We've gotten to a couple points where we've had several search and seizures,” he said. “Progress is being made, and there will be significant noteworthy subjects that will be part of actions in the next several months.”
In August, the Justice Department made 150 arrests and filed 117 criminal complaints and indictments in a roundup of online fraud, spam and cybercrime cases as part of the Operation Web Snare effort. About a dozen of those were spam-related, Larkin said. More than 160 investigations were conducted and 140 search warrents were issued since June 1.
