Virginia indicts two on spam felony charges

CNN.Com ^ | Friday, December 12, 2003 Posted: 1:36 PM EST (1836 GMT) | From Brad Wright

[Bobby777]

DULLES, Virginia (CNN) -- Virginia authorities Thursday announced felony charges against two men accused of violating the state's new anti-spam law. They described the indictments as the first of their kind.

Jeremy Jaynes and Richard Rutowski, both of North Carolina, were charged with sending thousands of unsolicited e-mails bearing falsified routing information. The e-mails hawked investments, mortgage information and software. Many of the servers that processed the e-mails are based in Virginia.

[Bobby777]

That's a shame ...

[Bobby777]

Authorities said Jeremy Jaynes was arrested in Raleigh, North Carolina.

[an amused spectator]

Wonder when spitting on the sidewalk is going to become a felony? :-)

[an amused spectator]

Lisa Hicks-Thomas, director of Virginia's Computer Crimes Unit, described the type of spam allegedly sent out by the two men:

"The spam advertised several different schemes -- some of which were penny-picker stock schemes, also mortgage interest rate advertisements and, most notably, an Internet history eraser so that the person could conceivably go in and erase the history of where they had been on the Internet," she said.

Ooooh, freakin' Wooooo! Betcha Lisa's panties are getting wet at the thought of "Trusted Computers".

Give me a break.

The Clintonites would have LOVED this stuff during the impeachment wars.

[EggsAckley]

So, you LIKE spam? Better yet, you LIKE the viruses that spam installs on your computer?

These people are cyber terrorists.

[thatdewd]

Let me have them, and then let the other spammers watch the video I make of what happens. There will be no more spam.

[an amused spectator]

Everything is a "felony". When are you people going to get it?

[catonsville]

The Spamhaus Web Site, a major chronicler of internet spam activity, refer to Jaynes and Rutowsky as being part of a " nonstop group of porn spammers with " multiple machines pumping scam and porn spam around the clock." Particularly spam involving bestiality.

[supercat]

Let me have them, and then let the other spammers watch the video I make of what happens. There will be no more spam.

I wonder what would happen if a state passed a law that in any criminal trial, evidence that the victim had engaged in the process of bulk-emailing would be admissible.

[EggsAckley]

"you people" You people??? That's always the mantra of a very small, elite group of true believers, who think that they know BETTER than ANYONE else on the planet.

Get off your high horse. It doesn't work here.

[thatdewd]

I wonder what would happen if a state passed a law that in any criminal trial, evidence that the victim had engaged in the process of bulk-emailing would be admissible.

LOL, the death penalty would be passed in all 50 states and electricity rates would go up.

[supercat]

Everything is a "felony". When are you people going to get it?

While I do find disturbing the tendency to make rather too many crimes 'felonies', at the same time I do think that certain aspects of spammers' activities should be criminal and that punishments should be based upon crimes' severity. To be sure, the federal government has no legitimate authority to decide whether a particular state crime should include, as part of its sentence, a lifetime prohibition against owning firearms (that should be up to the state to determine), and perhaps the threshholds for felony conviction are lower than they should be, but sending spams with return addresses that point to innocent victims should be a crime.

[Revolting cat!]

Me thinks the approach is all wrong, from the getgo. They're going after the clever hackers, for lack of a better word, the service providers, instead of the businesses that employ them! What's up with that? Worship of "byznys"? Free speech issues (we all know how the Supremes would rule on that question.)?

[USMCVet]

Wonder when spitting on the sidewalk is going to become a felony? :-)

Basically, when your spit gets into my home computer and I didn't ask for it.

Hope the two of them spend years in a small cell with the door welded shut.

[VRWC_minion]

I'm against the death penalty but spam is making me rethink my posistion.

[Bobby777]

I agree in part ... go after the businesses too ... $10 per spam mail ... it will stop 90%+ inside a month ... if it takes that long ... for companies outside the USA, we'll have to be a little more creative ...

[Bobby777]

hehe ...

[an amused spectator]

You're on Free Republic. You're mostly guilty of "copyright infringement". You just haven't been prosecuted yet. You're one of "you people".

I've always liked your posts, Eggs. I'm not going to bash you because you're a bit younger than me.

A Constitutionalist should understand when they're going overboard with the "felony" crap. Clinton committed numerous felonies, but "felonies" are subjective.

When the "legal system" starts talking about "felonies", I become extremely sceptical.

[KO5A]

I agree with you, and I never thought i would be cheerleading a increase in governmetn power, and a new law..........butI find maself hoping this guy gets thrown in the slammer, followed by all his spamming buddies, for a long, no-computer access, time

[metalboy]

Hey man, what drives me nutso is when I go to porn sites and pop up ads pop up and up and up. I try to visit every site that pops up but more pop up and up and up. How can I get the porn satisfaction that I`m entitled to when I must visit all these sites? My credit card is maxed out as it is.