Cheektowaga teen accused of computer crimes
A Cheektowaga teenager, a whiz kid on the computer, has been arrested in Los Angeles and accused of bombarding Internet users with more than a million spam e-mails.
Not only is the 18-year-old accused of computer hacking and violating federal spam laws, but he allegedly threatened to wreak more havoc on a California Internet company if it didn't give him exclusive marketing rights to its customers, federal authorities said.
Anthony Greco, a former Erie Community College student, is accused of creating thousands of accounts on MySpace.com, an online meeting place, and using them to send about 1.5 million unsolicited commercial e-mails to the Web site's users.
Greco, who believed he was traveling to California to strike a deal with company officials, was arrested by authorities Wednesday, when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport, said Brian Hoffstadt, an assistant U.S. attorney for the central district of California.
"This is a substantial crime," Hoffstadt said. "What Greco did, if convicted, is a felony."
