Virginia Files Felony Spam Charges

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5120673.html

= Virginia files felony spam charges
By John Borland
CNET News.com
December 11, 2003, 3:11 PM PT

Virginia Attorney General = Jerry Kilgore announced Thursday that his office had made its first felony indict= ment under the state's antispam law.

The charges were = filed against North Carolina resident Jeremy Jaynes, also known under the pseudonym "Gaven Stubberf= ield," for allegedly using fraudulent means to transmit unsolicited bulk e-mail. Jaynes was arrested Thursday morning in Raleigh, N.C., and will be extradite= d to Virginia, Kilgor= e's office said.

Kilgore's office = said an arrest warrant also was issued for Richard Rutowski, an associate of Jay= nes, on the same charges. Rutowski had not yet turned himself in as of late Thursday, a representative for Kilgore said.

According to anti= spam organization Spa= mhaus, "Stubberfield" is well-known for pornographic and "get rich quick" offers online and was ranked No. 8 on the group's top 10 spamme= rs list for November. The charges were based in part on reports from America Online subscribers. Kilgore announced the indictment at AOL headquarters. <= o:p>

"Falsificati= on (of e-mail headers or routing information) prevents the receiver from knowing w= ho sent the spam or contacting them through the 'from address' of the e-mail," Kilgore said in a statement. "This is what makes this e-= mail a crime in Virginia, and the volume that was sent during this period elevates the charge to a felony."

The criminal indi= ctment is a sign of a growing focus, at both the state and federal level, on bring= ing the growing daily bulk of unsolicited e-mail under control.

However, policies= at the state and federal level have diverged with the recent p= assage of the federal Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (Can-Spam) Act.

The federal bill,= which has not yet been signed by President Bush, would continue to outlaw falsify= ing e-mail headers to mask an e-mailer's identity. But antispam activists say t= he proposal would in fact make the problem worse by allowing businesses to send unsolicited e-mail legally as long as it was accompanied by an "opt out" link.

"Anyone with= any sense would, of course, realize that if Can-Spam becomes law, opting out of spamm= ers' lists will very likely become the main daytime activity for most U.S. e-= mail users in 2004," reads a Spamhaus analysis of the bill. "The second main activity will be sorting through mailboxes crammed with 'legal' spam e= very few minutes to see if there's any e-mail amongst the spam."

The Virginia indictment alleges that Jayne= s sent more than 10,000 e-mails a day on three days in July and August, through servers located in Virginia. More than 100,000 messages were sent over a 30-day period, it says. Those amounts are enough to trigger the criminal provisions of Virginia's antispam law.

Jaynes faces four felony charges, each of which carries a penalty of one to five years in pri= son, a fine of up to $2,500, or both.

"We applaud Attorney General Kilgore's swift action to vigorously enforce Virginia's tough antispam law," C= urtis Lu, AOL deputy general counsel, said in a statement. "Spammers who use outlaw tactics of falsification may find themselves behind jail bars instea= d of computer screens."