Snake oil spamming chiropractor gets cracked

Long time ROKSO-listed spammer Brian "Dr. HGH" McDaid is finally going to pay for his crimes.

This week, in a Philadelphia court, US federal court Judge Stewart R. Dalzell sentenced McDaid to two years in prison and a year of probation.

McDaid and his "Sili Neutraceuticals" were a real pain in the inbox starting in 2005 when he and his partners flooded the world with spam touting "cures" involving HGH, green tea, hoodia & other unproven & potentially dangerous substances. The danger in most cases comes from people who believe the outrageous claims and neglect proven treatments.

After tracking this operation for some time and documenting it in his ROKSO database record, Spamhaus was contacted by US investigators and shared all we had with them on McDaid's operation and the other related spammers. In 2007, the FTC civilly sued him for unfounded claims about his hoodia weight-loss and HGH anti-aging products. They were able to get a large monetary judgement against him and confiscated most of his ill-gotten gains.

In March, 2011, he was indicted by a Philadelphia grand jury on criminal CAN-SPAM charges to which he later pled guilty.

Spamhaus would like to extend it's heartfelt thanks to the FTC attorneys who managed the investigation; Steve Wernikoff & Marissa Reich; and to the federal prosecutors who worked stop McDaid and his partners from abusing the internet's users and profiting from their crimes.

Further reading:

• Judge orders end to weight-loss, anti-aging spam operation
• Judge Agrees with FTC, Orders Spammers to Pay More Than $2.5 Million and Stop Selling Bogus Weight-Loss and Anti-Aging Products
• Government trial-expert's blog about the criminal proceedings