Posted on 12/02/2004 5:02:34 AM PST by snopercod
Case results in the nation's first-ever felony spam convictions.
A brother and sister were convicted this week of three felony charges of sending thousands of junk e-mails through servers located in Virginia, according to Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore.
The convictions of Jeremy Jaynes, who was sentenced to nine years in prison, and his sister, Jessica DeGroot, who was fined $7500, were the nation's first-ever felony spam convictions, Kilgore says in a statement. A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, was found not guilty, the attorney general says. The cases were heard in Loudoun County Circuit Court.
The case was prosecuted by members of the attorney general's Computer Crimes Unit under Virginia's new antispam law, which took effect last year.
"This is a major victory for Virginians and all Americans," Kilgore says in the statement. "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 commerce."
Jaynes was rated the world's eighth-most prolific spammer by the Register of Known Spam Operations, Kilgore says.
DeGroot was convicted after prosecutors proved she had used her credit card to purchase domain names for the purpose of sending spam. Jaynes surrendered to authorities in Raleigh, North Carolina, last December. DeGroot turned herself in to authorities in April.
Thousands of Messages Sent
According to the indictment, the spam was sent in 2003 between July 11 and August 9. And spam sent on July 16, 19, and 26 of that year exceeded 10,000 messages during each 24-hour period, according to the statement. Kilgore says those numbers don't reflect the total number of messages sent, because they were based solely on actual complaints made by customers to their Internet service providers.
The indictment also alleged that the sender falsified transmission or routing information to prevent recipients from knowing who had sent the messages and how to contact the sender.
This falsified information is what makes such spam a crime in Virginia, and the volume of e-mails sent during the period is what elevated the charge to a felony, according to the statement.
Jaynes' Virginia attorney, David Oblon, could not be reached for comment.
...a little followup on the article you posted last month.
Awww, I was hoping for the death penalty...
YYYEEESSSSSSS!!!! Two down and many to go!! Any spammers reading this?? You're next!!
Another one bites the dust!
My mother always told me SPAM was not good for you.
Jaynes: "SPAM."
Convict: "You look pretty cute in that jumpsuit, boy."
Then hows come I'm still getting a gazillion spams every day??
Good! These spammers are only a slight step above serial killers and child molesters in my book. Hope they encounter some mean drug kingpins or armed robbers who were computer owners in the outside world....
Nine years in jail? Maybe he should have killed somebody - he might serve less time.
I am averaging 34 spams per hour for two addresses. I have had these addresses for 10+ years, and I really hate to let them go. If I do not check my email a couple of times a day, it is more than I can do to clean it up. I just delete everything.
LOL
May his cellmate be a guy who answered every e-mail touting "enlargement" pills, potions and surgery.
Dude, yer being STALKED! That's a lot o' spam! Actually, I only have trouble with Hotmail, which I consider to be the armpit of email services. I've guarded my Yahoo address and only given it to friends and family, and I get very little spam in that account.
Call your ISP and ask to change your password. I got a lot less spams when I did that.
I don't see the connection. What does the password you use on your ISP have to do with the type of email you receive?
In a just world, his cellmate will have bought lots of V/I/A/G/R/A ONLINE!
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