Spam rage vigilante

IT’S a growing problem. A Californian computer programmer has been arrested for threatening to torture and kill employees of a company he blames for bombarding his computer with web ads promising to enhance his manhood.

In one of the first prosecutions of its kind in the state for "spam rage", Charles Booher, 44, was arrested last week for making repeated threats to staff of a Canadian company.

Booher threatened to send a "package full of Anthrax spores" to the company, to "disable" an employee with a bullet and torture him with a power drill and ice pick; and to hunt down and mutilate the employees unless they removed him from their e-mail list, prosecutors said.

Mr Booher acknowledged that he had behaved badly but explained: "I go to their website and start complaining to them, would you please, please, please stop bothering me," he said. "It just sort of escalated ... and I sort of lost my cool at that point."

The Sunnyvale, California man now faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He said the problem stemmed from a program he mistakenly downloaded from the internet that brought a continuous stream of advertising to his computer.