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Spammers found guilty and sentenced to nine years
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Following up on our previous article, ‘First felony spam trial gets underway’, the two have been convicted in the nation’s first felony prosecution of distributors of spam.
Jurors who convicted Jeremy D. Jaynes, 30, and Jessica DeGroot, 28, later sentenced Jaynes to a nine-year prison term and fined DeGroot $7,500 for three convictions each of sending e-mails with fraudulent and untraceable routing information.
A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, was acquitted of similar charges. Jurors deliberated for a day and a half, not including the penalty phase.
Prosecutors compared Jaynes and DeGroot, both of the Raleigh, N.C., area, to modern-day snake-oil salesmen who used the Internet to peddle junk like a “FedEx refund processor” that supposedly allowed people to earn $75 an hour while working from home.
In one month alone, Jaynes received 10,000 credit card orders, each for $39.95, for the processor.
“This was just a case of fraud,” said state prosecutor Samuel E. Fishel IV. “This is a snake-oil salesman in a new format.”
Prosecutors asked the jury to impose a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for Jaynes, and to consider an unspecified prison term for his sister.
Defense lawyers asked jurors to spare the defendants prison terms.
David Oblon, representing Jaynes, argued that it was inappropriate for prosecutors to seek what he called an excessive punishment, given that this is the first prosecution under the Virginia law. He also noted that his client, a North Carolina resident, would have been unaware of the Virginia law.
Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Orne has not yet ruled on an earlier motion asking that the case be dismissed. He said during the trial that he had a hard time allowing the prosecution of DeGroot and Rutkowski to go forward to the jury.
The case against Rutkowski was the weakest, said his attorney Leo Andrews Jr., “and I would think the commonwealth would agree about that as well.”
Virginia prosecuted the case under a law that took effect last year that bars people from sending bulk e-mail that is unsolicited and masks its origin. AOL, which is a unit of New York-based Time Warner Inc., is based in Dulles, Va.
Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore called Virginia’s anti-spam law the toughest in America.
“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,” Kilgore said in a statement.
Source
SFGate
There is also a great discussion on this topic via the slashdot topic, with some contrasting views on the length of the jail sentence.
Some feel the sentence is excessive in comparison to jail terms for other crimes, 9 years does sound a lot for sending ‘nuisance’ email but remember these guys were also actually making money by committing fraud.
Also the fine of $7500 doesn’t really reflect the amount of money involved here (“In one month alone, Jaynes received 10,000 credit card orders, each for $39.95″) which totals nearly half a million dollars!
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