Wiseguy scalpers bought tickets with CAPTCHA-busting botnet
Found on Network World on Friday, 19 November 2010
Three California men have pleaded guilty charges they built a network of CAPTCHA-solving computers that flooded online ticket vendors and snatched up the very best seats for Bruce Springsteen concerts, Broadway productions and even TV tapings of Dancing with the Stars.
They had to create shell corporations, register hundreds of fake Internet domains (one was stupidcellphone.com) and sign up for thousands of bogus e-mail addresses to make the scam work.
I wouldn't call this that much of a crime. They solved the captchas and paid for the tickets. Lots of things online are automated and nobody seems to mind. For example, a whole industry is based on snipers which make a bid in the last seconds on eBay. You might as well sue them too.