Security news
Security news4 November 2004
Brother and sister team found guilty of sending spam, Sophos reports on landmark case
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| The jury recommended that Jeremy Jaynes, 30, receives a 9 year jail sentence. |
A brother and sister who sent junk email to millions of America Online customers have been convicted in the USA's first felony prosecution of spammers.
Prosecutors told the court that Jeremy Jaynes, 30, and his sister Jessica DeGroot, 28, used bulk email to market fake products such as a "FedEx refund processor" for $39.95. This product was supposedly capable of earning people working from home $75 an hour. In one month alone, Jaynes received orders for the product totalling almost $400,000.
The jury recommended that Jaynes receives a jail sentence of 9 years, and that his sister - who helped Jaynes process credit card payments - should be fined $7,500, after convicting them both of sending emails with fraudulent and untraceable routing information.
Jaynes, who sometimes used the pseudonym Gaven Stubberfield, is said to have built up a fortune of $24 million selling products via spam.
"Spammers make the lives of regular internet users and businesses a misery by clogging up email boxes with junk mail. The reason why spammers do it is because of the huge profits that they can make peddling their products," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "The criminal conviction of Jeremy Jaynes sends out a strong message to other spammers that their activities are not going to be tolerated."
Formal sentencing of Jaynes and DeGroot is scheduled for February 2005.
Sophos recommends companies protect themselves with a consolidated solution which can defend against the threats of both spam and viruses.
