Send Spam? Go to Jail!
November 4, 2004 12:54 PM   Subscribe

First Felony Spam Convictions
Hopefully the first of many convictions of these bottom feeders.
posted by fenriq (27 comments total)
 
Seems more like he got convicted of fraud than spam but I'm not complaining.
posted by dobbs at 12:58 PM on November 4, 2004


dobbs, remember that Al Capone got busted for tax evasion. I'm not complaining either!
posted by fenriq at 1:00 PM on November 4, 2004


Cut his balls off and feed them to 'em.
posted by xmutex at 1:04 PM on November 4, 2004


Holy crap, he got nine years. I mean, I hate spam as much as the next guy, but that seems a tad harsh.
posted by picea at 1:05 PM on November 4, 2004


Nine years, great, wonderful. I hate spammers.

I don't think it too harsh, sure people have served less time for murder, but you know what, in some cases spammers bother me worse than murderers, because you have to admit, a lot of times murder victims had it coming... spammers hurt innocent people.
posted by bobo123 at 1:09 PM on November 4, 2004


penis enlargement prison jokes forthcoming...
posted by Krrrlson at 1:11 PM on November 4, 2004


"Whatta you in for man?"

"Spamming"

....and they all moved away from me on the bench....
posted by jonmc at 1:13 PM on November 4, 2004


jonmc, that wouldn't be the Group W bench, would it?
posted by fenriq at 1:21 PM on November 4, 2004


mother-rapers and father-stabbers don't like spam neither, fenriq.
posted by jonmc at 1:24 PM on November 4, 2004


Jurors recommended that Jeremy Jaynes, 30, be sentenced to nine years in prison and fined Jessica DeGroot, 28, $7,500 after convicting them of three counts each of sending e-mails with fraudulent and untraceable routing information.

Yeah, it's technically fraud, but that's one of the major problems with spam. If it was traceable, it would be stoppable.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 1:36 PM on November 4, 2004


jonmc, holy crap, for some reason that took a good fifteen minutes to sink in! Very nice!

Stupid turkey lunch making my brain all stupid and slow.
posted by fenriq at 1:37 PM on November 4, 2004


Of course, the real problem with spam remains:

In one month alone, Jaynes received 10,000 credit card orders, each for $39.95, for the processor.

... people actually responding to it.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 1:37 PM on November 4, 2004


Seems about right. Thats 24 MILLION dollars of fraud/theft. The more you steal the longer you should stay.

So, how many years should Dick Cheney get for stealing our money and giving it to Halliburton?
posted by camworld at 1:58 PM on November 4, 2004


camworld, looks like he got four more to me.
posted by stet at 2:09 PM on November 4, 2004


This is an aside but its tangental, what if they gave him the choice, nine years of soft prison at Club Fed or 3 years in a maximum security prison?
posted by fenriq at 2:12 PM on November 4, 2004


Depends on how tough you are, I guess, but I doubt a white collar criminal would choose the prospect of potential ass-pounding and shivving, even if it meant six more years.
posted by Krrrlson at 3:36 PM on November 4, 2004


9 years seems a bit harsh. How about one year and forfeiture of all proceeds from the spamming?
And life banishment from the web. One of those, "you are not to lay hands on a keyboard or mouse for fear of death" kind of things.
posted by a3matrix at 3:44 PM on November 4, 2004


Nine years doesn't seem harsh enough. How about one year, forfeiture of all proceeds, and then death? 'cause, y'know, I'd like them to get to think about their actions for a while before we pull the plug on 'em.
posted by five fresh fish at 4:04 PM on November 4, 2004


How about they let him off free after taking all his money AND chopping his hands off?

And maybe poking his eyes out too.
posted by fenriq at 4:11 PM on November 4, 2004


Does he have to give back the 24million?
posted by mert at 4:29 PM on November 4, 2004


Okay, if you take all his money AND chop off his hands AND poke out his eyes AND kick him in the nutsack, THEN he doesn't have to be put to death.

Works for me.
posted by five fresh fish at 5:15 PM on November 4, 2004


It says later in the article that the judge was reluctant to let the case go to jury, probably for fear of the imposition of such a long sentence. He has the authority to lessen it, and I bet it does. It also seems like he could still dismiss it.

Jaynes is a North Carolina resident, presumably sending the spam from NC, and was prosecuted in Virginia court under a new Virginia law. It's doubtful that all $24 million of his ill-gotten money came from VA residents. So does this mean that he should have only been charged for whatever amount he bilked out of VA residents? Otherwise, it seems like VA is prosecuting him on behalf of the rest of the states, using their own law.

It's an interesting case. I'd like to find out more about the defendants and AOL's involvement.

At first glance nine years seems terribly harsh, but I think skallas makes a good point about this being tantamount to good old door-to-door fraud.
posted by jennyb at 5:29 PM on November 4, 2004


Okay, if you take all his money AND chop off his hands AND poke out his eyes AND kick him in the nutsack, THEN he doesn't have to be put to death.

Works for me.


HAHAHAHA That works for me too.
posted by a3matrix at 7:25 PM on November 4, 2004


I should think a jury of their peers would put the penalty at death. Outright execution.

'cause their peers are people like us, who are sick and tired of email abuse. Kill them as an example to others. When spamming is that illegal, people are gonna think twice about getting into the business. Let it go as underground as moonshine, and the only people who get spam will be people who seek it out.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:35 PM on November 4, 2004


I agree with DrJohnEvans. No amount of punishment will act as a deterrent as long as there is a significant amount of demand out there. We would need to have a well-informed populace. Unfortunately, as was proven this last Tuesday, the United States does not have one.
posted by greasepig at 10:36 PM on November 4, 2004


you people are nuts.
posted by ChasFile at 7:39 AM on November 5, 2004


Exactly, Greasepig. No matter how stiff the penalties for crack cocaine, for instance, there are always going to be people who sell it and people who buy it.

Thing is, no one has ever tried to sell it to me.

Let's get spam to that same sort of state: those who want it get it, those who don't, don't.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:31 AM on November 5, 2004


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