MSNBC: Spam senders convicted in first felony case

Jurors recommend nine years in prison for one offenderThe Associated Press
Updated: 7:02 p.m. ET Nov. 3, 2004

LEESBURG, Va. - A brother and sister who sent junk e-mail to millions of America Online customers were convicted Wednesday in the nation’s first felony prosecution of Internet spam distributors.

Jurors recommended that Jeremy Jaynes be sentenced to nine years in prison and fined Jessica DeGroot $7,500 after convicting them of three counts each of sending e-mails with fraudulent and untraceable routing information.

A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, 30, was acquitted of similar charges.

Sentencing was set for February. Circuit Court Judge Thomas Horne will have the option of reducing the jury’s sentence or leaving it intact.

...

Prosecutors said Jaynes, 30, and DeGroot, 28, who live in the Raleigh, N.C., area, used the Internet to peddle sham products and services such as a “FedEx refund processor.”

The refund processor supposedly allowed people to earn $75 an hour for working from home. In one month alone, Jaynes received 10,000 credit card orders, each for $39.95, for the processor.

“This is a snake oil salesman in a new format,” said state prosecutor Samuel E. Fishel IV.

They did more than send spam - they were defrauding people in a massive way. May this be the first of many such prosecutions to come.

As an aside, I checked my home email account this morning from work. Earthlink's spam blocker had blocked 89 spam messages so far this week, but another 15 got through. Two of them were repeat phishing attempts. I hope an especially unpleasant corner of hell is reserved for such people.