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Top Spammer Gets 9 Years in Prison

By Nate Mook, BetaNews

April 8, 2005, 2:00 PM

A Virginia judge has sentenced spammer Jeremy Jaynes to nine years in prison for sending over 10 million e-mails a day with the aid of 16 broadband lines. Because the case marks the first felony prosecution for spam, however, Judge Thomas Horne postponed the sentence while the ruling is appealed.

Jeremy Jaynes, who was considered one of the top ten spammers in the world by Spamhaus, was found guilty last November and the jury recommended a nine-year prison term. Jaynes' lawyers contended that the Virginia law under which he was prosecuted violated free speech rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Jaynes was accused of grossing up to $750,000 per month with his unsolicited junk e-mail. Because he used aliases when sending the spam, he had violated a new Virginia law designed to help crackdown on spam.

Jurors also convicted Jaynes' sister Jessica DeGroot, but only recommended she receive a $7,500 fine for her part in the operation. Lawyers for the prosecution contended that her involvement went deeper, but lacked solid evidence.

"We're satisfied that the court upheld what 12 citizens of Virginia determined was an appropriate sentence — nine years in prison," said prosecutor Lisa Hicks-Thomas.

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By spiffyjeff

posted Apr 11, 2005 - 8:44 PM

yes yes, sending all that spam is bad, but buying from spam is worse! Who are the idiots buying things from spam? They are the ones that keep the spam comming. I say, Boycott SPAM!

Score: 0

By bank-ebay.com

edited Oct 27, 2005 - 3:28 AM

ihhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Score: 0

By ted h

posted Apr 11, 2005 - 11:20 AM

What is disturbing,now is Jaynes' attorney is fighing hard to convince the judge that 9 years is far too harsh for this new crime...... what a joke!

Score: 0

By Pegusis2

edited Apr 11, 2005 - 9:43 AM

I'd vote to give the idiot and any other idiot spammer a another 5 years... just for the fun of it.

As an Internet Service Provider in small business, I waist daily 10 to 20 minutes just going over Postmaster accounts and removing all the spam that goes into it daily. Yes I could have them automatically removed but everyonce in awhile there is an actual email in one of the Postmaster accounts that was meant for a real person.

Score: 0

By guitardave78

posted Apr 11, 2005 - 7:20 AM

Yes it isnt the most awful thing a person can do, but at the end of the day he has scammed $750,000 a month off people, so somone is gettign hurt from it!

Score: 0

By eunichman

posted Apr 11, 2005 - 3:00 AM

Spam in your email box is exactly the same as spam in your snailmail box. the ads, the unsolicited mailings, it's all the same. Before you start prosecuting email spammers, go after the big companies that flood my mail slot with tons of advertisements and solicitations, all which end up in the garbage, which unnecessarily contributes to an already overtaxed ecosystem

Score: 0

By Black-Wolf

posted Apr 10, 2005 - 5:19 AM

It's pain in the neck when we receive so many crazy spam mails... give them back the pain we all have felt!

Score: 0

By gawd21

posted Apr 10, 2005 - 10:15 AM

It's just spam and yes it sucks, but come on. No spam has ever hurt anyone.

Score: 0

By Pegusis2

edited Apr 11, 2005 - 9:44 AM

No spam has ever hurt anyone? Let me correct you on that... We have 7/8'ths of the internet population who are computer illiterate and they will click on just about anything... these are the folks that end up paying to have their computer repaired because of some spammers attatchment that has entered their computer and makes long distant calls... or they have paid money of sort or another for fony advertising. I'd say the idiot spammer should get another 5 years just for good measure, if beheading works go for it.

And now I'm out of coffee... so I got to make another one... Holy Cow - Where's me Tims?

Score: 0

By eunichman

posted Apr 12, 2005 - 2:54 AM

"We have 7/8'ths of the internet population who are computer illiterate and they will click on just about anything... these are the folks that end up paying to have their computer repaired because of some spammers attatchment that has entered their computer and makes long distant calls..."

and it's a spammers fault? If a person doesnt know how to use a computer then they have no reason being behind the keyboard? get real

Score: 0

By wickedsun

posted Apr 11, 2005 - 10:29 AM

Illeterates get what they deserve if you ask me. That's why you are required to have a license to drive.

Score: 0

By eunichman

posted Apr 12, 2005 - 2:56 AM

agreed!

h o w e v e r

have you seen the people behind the wheel these days? I swear they give a license to anyone who pays them money. Rather than earning a licence, you get to buy one :)

Score: 0

By some guy

posted Apr 9, 2005 - 9:11 AM

this cracks me up aswell ok if you heard month ago about that pedfile that raped and killed that girl with 25 prior convictions was out roaming free, but here some guy spamming email goes to prision. most isp host filter out bs spamm before you get it, I bet not one of you ever recived a spam email from this guy. But lets let a pedfile walk-around slap him on the hand instead. Just media and political bs, what a waste of tax payyer money. patrol the boarders instead with that mony look for all them peps that hate the us and want to do a dirty bomb.

Score: 0

By Portal3

edited Apr 9, 2005 - 9:43 AM

You have to consider the governments priority:
- Which is costing us more?
- Will we benifit in preventing the problem?
- Which will lead to making "US" more money?
So obviously a spammer will be sentenced longer than a paedophile.

Now, what can be done in the future to prevent this from happening?
- Teach people that spamming is BAD
- make a new protocol that can't be used for spam
The prior is the one most opt for since everyones t0o f***ing lazy to conform to a new protocol.

Making laws on open protocols is just stupid. It's like having a moral-protocol for a protocol (only it's really a legal-protocol that applies to the crap protocols). Sense make, no.

Maybe they can get him deported to some country where he can be prosecuted for it and then executed (oh wait, it's not like he has weapons of mass destruction).

Score: 0

By eunichman

posted Apr 11, 2005 - 3:03 AM

" You have to consider the governments priority:
- Which is costing us more?
- Will we benifit in preventing the problem?
- Which will lead to making "US" more money?
So obviously a spammer will be sentenced longer than a paedophile."

the government's priority is upholding the law and protecting the people from personal injury. The pedophile is clearly more a priority.

"Maybe they can get him deported to some country where he can be prosecuted for it and then executed (oh wait, it's not like he has weapons of mass destruction)."

either did sadam, but we broke the law going there, staying there and continue to break the law.

Score: 0

By adamdawg

posted Apr 9, 2005 - 4:04 AM

He should have gotten the death penalty :D

Score: 0

By Krazy Hawaiian

edited Apr 9, 2005 - 4:02 AM

Sending 10,000,000 emails a day without a broadband connection seems somewhat farfetched if you ask me.... just like the paycheck. Prolly inflater alot to make spamming seem more glossy... Hmmm with a broadband now, think of the $$$ you could be rolling in!!

Oh dont forget *NOT* to pick up that soap!! :D

Score: 0

By shicaca

posted Apr 9, 2005 - 1:57 PM

He did use broadband... SIXTEEN of them (to be exact).

If he scammed that many people out of their money, that's sad. I hope it was all little payments (like $20 here, $20 there or something.)

Score: 0

By adamdawg

posted Apr 9, 2005 - 4:03 AM

huh?

Score: 0

By jaelanicu

posted Apr 8, 2005 - 11:02 PM

Good... Next spammer please.
Oh, the goverment should work harder to catch the other spammers.

Score: 0

By franzj

posted Apr 8, 2005 - 11:16 PM

Not good enough. I won't be satisfied until he all appeals have failed and his jailtime begins.

Score: 0

By hlesesne

posted Apr 8, 2005 - 3:48 PM

I did a conservative conversion calculation for JJ's efforts - I came to around .000167.

I posted my math over here:

http://hal.lco.net/Perma...-8d14-79b2b5dbcbc3.aspx

:-)

Score: 0

By paulm

posted Apr 8, 2005 - 9:21 PM

It shouldn't be about how much money this weezle makes, but simply the fact that we are subjected to email we don't request. For this alone he should have to serve out the 9 years.
My only wish is that there are hundreds/thousands more prosecutions worldwide, so our inbox's only receive what we request!

Score: 0

By Pipewrench

posted Apr 8, 2005 - 2:35 PM

I'm glad.

What a freaking jerk you have to be to make that kind of money annoying other people. Scum.

Score: 0

By Sphyr

posted Apr 8, 2005 - 2:55 PM

$750k? A MONTH? There are a whole lot more idiots buying stuff from spam email than I thought.

Score: 0

By LostProphet

posted Apr 10, 2005 - 10:33 PM

I agree 750K month!!! Damn makes me want to sell some useless crap and pray on stupid people. Crap and to think we bust our arse to make a honest days living.

Or closet to honest as we can be ;)

Score: 0

By Jack_k1@hotmail.com

posted Apr 8, 2005 - 3:13 PM

Remember that the *average* IQ is 100. The world is chock full of suckers. Who do you think pays the electric bills in Vegas?

Score: 0

By mantene

edited Apr 8, 2005 - 3:50 PM

There is a sucker born every minute
Each time the second hand sweeps to the top
Like dandelions up they pop,
Their ears so big, their eyes so wide.
And though I feed ‘em bonafide baloney
With no truth in it
Why you can bet I’ll find some rube to buy my corn.
‘Cause there’s a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute,
And I’m referrin’ to the minute you were born.

Each blessed hour brings sixty of ‘em
Each time the wooden cuckoo shows his face
Another sucker takes his place,
And plunks his quarter on the line
To buy my brand of genuine malarky.
God bless and love ‘em!
But don’t feel sad or hoppin’ mad or cause a scene
‘Cause there’s a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute,
But M’am you mighta been the minute in between.

There is a sucker born every minute
Each time the second hand sweeps to the top
Like dandelions up they pop,
Their ears so big, their eyes so wide.
And though my tale is bonafide baloney,
Just let me spin it,
And ain’t no man who can resist me wait and see
‘Cause there’s a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute,
And friends the biggest one excluding none is me!
--"Barnum" 1980

Score: 0

By Ainvar

posted Apr 8, 2005 - 3:10 PM

Why would anyone want to buy anything from a spam email? That is asking to be dupped!! I hope he gets the 9 years and gets all the money he made doing that taken away.

I hate spammers and I hope everyone of them gets whats coming to them.

Score: 0

By Portal3

posted Apr 9, 2005 - 9:47 AM

Now, now. Let's not go all "anti" spammers. There are far worse things in life.
It's a shame that people tend to only focus on the newer attrocities instead of the ones they've come accustomed to (ie: rape).

Score: 0

By cowticket

posted Apr 8, 2005 - 3:49 PM

That money should go to the millions of people who got screwed by that guys BS.

Score: 0

By cPingN

posted Apr 8, 2005 - 5:56 PM

And to top off the idiocity, we have our very own betanews and their wonderful ads. DIRECTLY BELOW the last post we have:

"
There is 1 update available for your computer
Your Windows XP may need a tune up.
Click "Start" to recommend improvements.
"

Fooking Lame!

Score: 0

By shy_one

posted Apr 9, 2005 - 3:07 AM

Adds on this site are different from the spam in our inboxes because we choose to come to this site spam comes to us.

Score: 0

By Googly

edited Apr 9, 2005 - 1:43 AM

That's true I also some times below the Betanews that there is one update for your computer so I support cpingn.

Score: 0

By XiND

posted Apr 8, 2005 - 8:59 PM

> And to top off the idiocity, we have our very own betanews and their wonderful ads. DIRECTLY BELOW the last post (...)

Ads? Where? I see no ads. :)

Score: 0

By horsecharles

posted Apr 8, 2005 - 9:27 PM

The sister was spared, though she may in fact be disappointed of this because:

the disposition of this case took so long, she missed the chance to be interned with Martha Stewart, as well as getting all the free lezzie sex she could want...

Seriously, i salute this type of treatment toward spammers-- & let it get as severe as possible: say mandatory inclusion in Spammer Offender Registries... we're much more vulnerable to this type of scum than to sex offenders, actually.

Score: 0

By deathshead

posted Apr 9, 2005 - 1:40 AM

How about a day inside prison for every spam email sent.

Score: 0

By Squizz81

posted Apr 9, 2005 - 7:19 AM

I recon the ruling is stupid..

People get less than that for murder.

So people can think..: "Hmm i want to do something bad.. what can i do? Well if i spam i get 9 years in jail or.. if i murder someone i get out in 3-5. Gee I dunno"

Its all just silly.. tho i do think something should happen to him. maybe 10 yrs of community service and pay back all the money.. dunno

Score: 0

By Bahwoot

posted Apr 9, 2005 - 7:58 AM

For every spam email he sent out make him plant 1 tree.

Score: 0

By thejacket

posted Apr 10, 2005 - 10:40 PM

They should make him eat one can of spam everyday for 9 years in prison.

Score: 0

By Portal3

posted Apr 9, 2005 - 9:51 AM

If I had a dollar for everytime someone said that I'd have..... 10 million emails minus $750K times 12 divided by 1 million idiots.... $1

Score: 0

By Ozieo

posted Apr 9, 2005 - 10:30 AM

They should have given him lifelong.

Score: 0

By Bruce_Bach

posted Apr 10, 2005 - 8:39 AM

If you think about it from a prostitution angle, not only do the ho's go to jail but the johns as well.
I'm all for not only prosecuting the scum that is sending spam and clogging up the internet pipes but prosecute the people that are buying as well.
Hmmmmm wonder how long a jury would give for being stupid.
In this goofy internet world we are dealing with that might be the only way to wake some of these people up.
I wonder what percentage of all spam are really just hoaxes to get user info or to spread little nasty viri vs. actually selling products. I'll bet is a pretty high percentage.

Score: 0

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