Spoofed spam sibling sent to slammer

Posted on 4 Nov 2004 at 12:59

Following the first trial of its kind in the US, a brother and sister have been convicted of sending hundreds of thousands of spam emails. A third defendant Richard Rutkowski was cleared of charges.

Finding the two defendants guilty of three charges each of sending emails with spoofed addresses, the jury recommended that Jeremy Jaynes be sentenced to nine years in prison and fined Jessica DeGroot $7,500. The prosecution had asked for a maximum sentence of 15 years on Jaynes and a jail sentence for DeGroot.

Amongst the products offered by the pair was a 'FedEx refund processor' that allegedly allowed people to earn $75 an hour working from home. The prosecution had told the jury that in a single month Jaynes had received 10,000 credit card orders, each for $39.95, for the processor. In total, Jaynes was said to have amassed a total of $24 million from his various scams.

Circuit Court Judge Thomas Horne will formally sentence Jaynes and DeGroot in February. He may choose to either go with the jury's recommendations or reduce the sentences.

Although the couple lived in North Carolina, they were prosecuted in Virginia - the home of AOL - under tough new state laws banning the sending of unsolicited email and hiding its origin. The case had already drawn media attention over whether an impartial jury could be found in AOL's home state.

Author: Steve Malone

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