If You Get Caught Spamming Will It Land You In Jail?
Recent cases against spammers have resulted in heavy fines but not much jail-time until now. Reuters reported that a Brooklyn man was sentenced to 30 months in prison for his crime of sending spam to over 1 million AOL subscribers. This man, Adam Vitale, 27 years old, was sentenced in Manhattan's federal court after he pleaded guilty over more than a year ago to breaking anti-spam laws. Not only did he get jail time but he was ordered to pay $180,000 to AOL for restitution.
So what really was the crime in this case?
Vitale did the dirty dead of sending junk emails to AOL subscribers with the intent to advertise a computer security program that he would receive 50% of the product's profits. This sounds like the rogue anti-spyware that we track and discover every day.
Finally we get some relief that the "system" is working to put scammers like this behind bars instead of a light slap on the hand. Even though this was not a big-time crime, it is a small start to cracking down on spammers and online scammers.
The next time that you discover spam in your inbox will you start to think that the sender may get jail time? Do you think the government or officials should take more action to prosecute these criminals? What should they do with these criminals once they are caught?