News About Unsolicited (SPAM) eMail Criminals

A jury in the Loudoun County Circuit Court convicted Jeremy Jaynes on three counts of violating Virginia's Anti-Spam Act in November 2004. This was the first ever US felony conviction in a spamming case, and the case received attention around the world. After convicting the defendant, the same jury sentenced him to serve nine years in prison.

Email Marketing is often a Criminal Act

Email marketing is often illegal as clients are told that they are using opt-in opt-out lists, however many such lists are formed without the recipients permission. In these cases from the first email sent a criminal act is recorded, both the email company and the client are accountable for this activity. In realistic terms the headers and other DNS information is passed to the FBI and INTERPOL to investigate.

Many British companies have been caught out by using email as a marketing medium by it backfiring on their respectability and the fact that it falls under telecommunication legislation not direct marketing codes of practice. Additionally the use of mail senders from other countries or accessing servers in the USA makes the crime an international one.

In a recent experience a British company used the services of a large finical service database to send out marketing materials within the UK. The materials offered training in relaxation for business people, but did much to create tension. However many UK companies have servers in the USA, the email constituted a breach of Federal Law and the senders details, client name (person & company) and IP router information was pass to both INTERPOL and the FBI. In the USA this criminal infraction was also passed to Homeland Security where if the client was to visit the USA at some point in the future they will find that they have been convicted of a crime in absentia.

List of SPAMMERS details.