Spammer Gets Slammer
A Virginia jury has recommended a nine-year sentence for a North Carolina man, who along with his sister, became the first people convicted under the state's new anti-spam laws based on falsifying information to mask the sender's identity.
Jeremy Jaynes, 30, and his sister Jessica DeGroot, 38, were found guilty on three felony charges of using phony internet addresses to send more than 10,000 unsolicited e-mail to tens of thousands of subscribers to America Online.
A third defendant in the case, Richard Rutkowski, was acquitted.
Prosecutors claimed that Jaynes is know as one of the most prolific spammers on the Internet. His sister used her credit card to purchase domain names he used to send the spam message. The jury recommended a nine-year sentence for Jaynes and a $7,500 fine for DeGroot.
The juror heard that Jaynes and DeGroot marketed products such as a "FedEx refund processor," claiming it would allow people to earn $75 an hour working from home. Jaynes received 10,000 credit card orders in one month, at a cost of $39.95 for each processor, evidence showed.
"Spam is a nuisance to millions of Americans, but it is also a major problem for businesses large and small because the thousands of unwanted e-mails create havoc as they attempt to conduct business," said Virginia's Attorney General Jerry Kilgore in a statement.
"This was just a case of fraud," said prosecutor Samuel Fishel IV. "This is a snake-oil salesman in a new format."
Because Microsoft owns a series of patents on the technological processes that secure the code surrounding email messages and the data identifying the location of the sender, anti-spam software developers have not been able to coordinate a unified effort.
Sending unwanted advertising via email is not illegal under the Virginia law, but hiding the sender's identification by falsifying routing or transmission information is illegal.
Those who have been duped by fraud schemes such as those used by Jaynes are not the only victims of the massive anti-spam effort. Companies who wish to send legitimate marketing email have been victimized also.
Jeremy Jaynes, 30, and his sister Jessica DeGroot, 38, were found guilty on three felony charges of using phony internet addresses to send more than 10,000 unsolicited e-mail to tens of thousands of subscribers to America Online.
A third defendant in the case, Richard Rutkowski, was acquitted.
Prosecutors claimed that Jaynes is know as one of the most prolific spammers on the Internet. His sister used her credit card to purchase domain names he used to send the spam message. The jury recommended a nine-year sentence for Jaynes and a $7,500 fine for DeGroot.
The juror heard that Jaynes and DeGroot marketed products such as a "FedEx refund processor," claiming it would allow people to earn $75 an hour working from home. Jaynes received 10,000 credit card orders in one month, at a cost of $39.95 for each processor, evidence showed.
"Spam is a nuisance to millions of Americans, but it is also a major problem for businesses large and small because the thousands of unwanted e-mails create havoc as they attempt to conduct business," said Virginia's Attorney General Jerry Kilgore in a statement.
"This was just a case of fraud," said prosecutor Samuel Fishel IV. "This is a snake-oil salesman in a new format."
Conviction Hailed a Industry Victory
The case is being hail as a major victory in the battle to fight the onslaught of millions of unwanted email messages that flood the in-boxes of Internet users, which has sparked an entire sub-industry in attempts to block spam.Because Microsoft owns a series of patents on the technological processes that secure the code surrounding email messages and the data identifying the location of the sender, anti-spam software developers have not been able to coordinate a unified effort.
Sending unwanted advertising via email is not illegal under the Virginia law, but hiding the sender's identification by falsifying routing or transmission information is illegal.
Those who have been duped by fraud schemes such as those used by Jaynes are not the only victims of the massive anti-spam effort. Companies who wish to send legitimate marketing email have been victimized also.
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