Vitale and Moeller reportedly went undetected by switching up header information and by using various servers to send e-mails, bypassing AOL’s spam filter. This generated $40,000 a month for the men with the use of 40 separate computer servers. Moeller divulged this information to a US Secret Service informant used as a decoy who hired Moeller and Vitale.

Moeller charged the informant $6,500 to send spam according to court documents. The men struck a deal with the informant that would pay him half of the proceeds from sales of security product and $40,000 from initial profits.

Both men are to be sentenced in September and face a maximum sentence of 11 years of incarceration.