A North Carolina man said to have a reputation for porn and get-rich-quick offers online – and who got into earlier controversy for spamming videos purporting Jenna Jameson and singer Britney Spears in a relationship – is the first suspect indicted under Virginia's anti-spam law, state attorney general Jerry Kilgore announced Dec. 11. And the second to face such indictment may not be far behind, with a warrant issued.
"Falsification (of e-mail headers or routing information) prevents the receiver from knowing who sent the spam or contacting them through the 'from address' of the e-mail," Kilgore said in an announcement. "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."
Jeremy Jaynes, who is known also as Gaven Stubberfield, is charged with using fraudulent means to transmit unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail, after his arrest the same morning in Raleigh, North Carolina. CNET reported he will be extradited to Virginia in the case.
The second suspect, Richard Rutkowski, said to be a Jaynes associate, is the subject of an arrest warrant but had not yet turned himself in as of late Dec. 11, CNET said.
Jameson a little over a year ago denounced an e-mail purported to market myfindit.com, which called itself the Napster of porn, and advertised a video claiming Jameson and Spears in lesbian sexuality at something called "Jenna's Porn Party," which Jameson's Website and representatives said didn't exist. "It's sad to see scam artists trying to capitalize any way they can on the Net," Jameson said at the time, in a statement to AVN.com.
At that time, Jameson's attorney contacted the listed registrant of myfindit.com, Wendy Walls, and demanded they cease and desist. But Jameson's legal team later learned that anti-spam watchdog Spamhaus Project listed the actual registrant as "Gaven Stubberfield."
Jameson was unavailable for comment as this story went to press.
Spamhaus Project has listed Jaynes as Stubberfield being the number-eight spammer on the group's top ten spammer list for November. The charges in the case, CNET said, are based on reporting from America Online subscribers. In fact, the tech news site added, Kilgore announced the indictment at AOL's headquarters.
Jayne is accused of sending over 10,000 spam messages a day over three days in July and August through Virginia-based servers, with over 100,000 total such messages in a 30-day timeframe, enough to trigger the criminal provisions in the Virginia law. He faces four felony counts, and each carries a 1-5 year prison term, a fine up to $2,500, or both.
AOL said it was pleased with Kilgore's fast action in the case. "Spammers who use outlaw tactics of falsification may find themselves behind jail bars instead of computer screens," said AOL deputy general counsel Curtis Lu in his own statement.
