Two Found Guilty in Nation’s First Felony Spam Conviction

A brother and sister who sent junk e-mail to millions of America Online customers were convicted Wednesday in the first felony prosecution of Internet spam distributors in the United States.

Jurors recommended that Jeremy Jaynes, 30, be sentenced to nine years in prison and fined Jessica DeGroot, 28, $7,500 (euro5,880) after convicting them of three counts each of sending e-mails with fraudulent and untraceable routing information.

A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, 30, was acquitted after deliberations of 1 1/2 days. All three defendants live in the Raleigh, North Carolina, area.

Prosecutors compared Jaynes and DeGroot to modern-day snake oil salesmen who use the Internet to peddle junk like a “FedEx refund processor” that supposedly allowed people to earn $75 (euro59) an hour working from home.

In one month alone, Jaynes received 10,000 credit card orders, each for $39.95 (euro31.32), for the processor.

“This was just a case of fraud,” said prosecutor Gene Fishel. “This is a snake oil salesman in a new format.”