Spammer Sentenced to Nine Years

Finally someone has taken anti-spamming laws to heart and used it for other than leverage in a settlement. Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore had Jeremy Jaynes and his sister, Jessica DeGroot, prosecuted. Jaynes was sentenced to nine years in prison by the jury, but actual sentencing isn't until February. DeGroot was fined $7,500. These are the first felony convictions for spamming in the US.

Jaynes, a well known "spam-king" would send up to 10 million spams daily. He could gross $750,000 of income monthly in his peak. He advertised everything from software to pornography to work-at-home schemes. It is reported he would get a response to one in 30,000 messages, but could earn $40 for each of them.

Jaynes sent the spam messages with fictitious transmission or routing information. This prevents recipients from knowing who had sent the messages and how to contact the sender. The volume of messages sent elevated this to a felony.

DeGroot used her credit cards to purchase domain address from which the messages were sent.