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| US duo in first spam conviction |
| 2004-11-04 |
| A brother and sister in the US have been convicted of sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited email messages - or spam -to AOL subscribers. It is the first criminal prosecution of internet spam distributors. Jurors in Virginia recommended that the man, Jeremy Jaynes, serve nine years in prison and that his sister, Jessica DeGroot, be fined $7,500. They were convicted under a state law that bars the sending of bulk emails using fake addresses. They will be formally sentenced next year. A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, was acquitted. Prosecutors said Jaynes was "a snake oil salesman in a new format", using the internet to peddle useless wares, news agency Associated Press reported. A "Fed-Ex refund processor" was supposed to allow people to earn $75 an hour working from home. Another item on sale was an "internet history eraser". His sister helped him process credit card payments. Jaynes amassed a fortune of $24m from his sales, prosecutors said. "He's been successful ripping people off all these years," AP quoted prosecutor Russell McGuire as saying. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #7 Fill their cells with printed-out spams that they sent. |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-11-04 6:15:20 PM |
| #6 fry 'em up. /.com |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-11-04 4:32:12 PM |
| #5 Jurors in Virginia recommended that the man, Jeremy Jaynes, serve nine years in prison . . . As his cellmate's intentions became frighteningly all too clear, Jeremy realized to his horror that Fate had arranged a merciless punishment for all those "Enarge your Pen1s!" e-mails he'd sent. |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-11-04 12:35:03 PM |
| #4 The Judge knows that these guys are going to be lynched the moment they get out. the only question is will they wind up as strage fruit, or will they "steal some logging chains and try to swim away." |
| Posted by: N Guard 2004-11-04 10:16:42 AM |
| #3 All thats too good for them. Into the lion pit with them. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-11-04 8:49:11 AM |
| #2 "Hangin's too good for 'im. Burnin's too good for 'im. He should be torn into little bisty pieces and buried alive!" |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-11-04 8:46:35 AM |
| #1 Off with their heads! |
| Posted by: Anonymous6092 2004-11-04 5:00:09 AM |