Attorney General Eric Holder is the latest senior government official to have his name misused by spammers, according to an FBI statement released yesterday.

The spam e-mail tells recipients that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are investigating them for terrorism and money laundering crimes, according to the FBI. Then, the spam email tells recipients can contact the Economic Financial Crimes Commission chairman through an e-mail address provided in the spam e-mail and pay $370 to prevent their prosecution, the FBI said. It isn’t clear from the FBI statement how the spammers invoke Holder’s name.

“Government agencies do not send unsolicited e-mails of this nature,” the FBI statement said. “The FBI, Department of Justice, and other United States government executives are briefed on numerous investigations, but do not personally contact consumers regarding such matters. In addition, United States government agencies use the legal process to contact individuals. These agencies do not send threatening letters/e-mails to consumers demanding payments for Internet crimes.”

The FBI said victims of Internet crimes can file complaints here.

Federal Judge Jeremy Fogel for the U.S. District of San Jose, Calif. has referred a lawsuit against Sanford Wallace, the self-professed “king of spam,” to the U.S. Attorney for a possible criminal investigation, reports CNET News.

Joseph Russoniello

According to TechDirt, Wallace was one of the first big-time spammers in the 1990s.  After some lawsuits, Wallace claimed he was getting out of the spam business and entered the pop-up business.  Then he got out of that and apparently bought a nightclub.  But nothing could keep him away from his true love, bringing pain and sufferring to online users everywhere.  The FTC ended up coming after him for selling anti-spyware software that had spyware on it; that’s not a joke.  And that’s not all, Wallace responded to the FTC charge by disappearing and was fined $4 million.

Anyways, the current lawsuit was brought by Facebook, which was suing him for… spamming Facebook users, surprise!  Wallace kept his usual routine, not showing up in court… until Friday, when he revealed to the court that he had filed for bankruptcy the day before.  Facebook wanted the judge to find Wallace in criminal contempt, leading to the referral to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, which contains San Jose, is Bush holdover Joseph Russoniello.

Russoniello was also a U.S. Attorney during the Reagan administration.  When he took office last year, Russoniello indicated that his main priorities were national security, getting guns off the streets, and prosecuting child pornography distribution.