Canning the spam

At e-Commerce Times, Erika Morphy writes

Two men have been successfully prosecuted for sending out millions of unsolicited e-mail messages promoting pornographic Web sites, and reaping millions of dollars as a result.

Jeffrey A. Kilbride of Venice, Calif., was sentenced to six years, and James R. Schaffer of Paradise Valley, Ariz., was sentenced to and five years and three months, to be served in Arizona. They were prosecuted under the federal CAN-SPAM act.

Between Jan. 20, 2004, and June 9, 2004, the two bombarded AOL members with their spam, prompting more than 600,000 complaints.

They also engaged in conspiracy, money laundering, fraud, and transportation of obscene materials. U.S. District Judge David Campbell sentenced the two after a three-week trial, giving Kilbride a stiffer penalty for attempting to keep a government witness from testifying.

Unfortunately, she says it will be business as usual for the other porn slime spammers. The money's just too big and there's way too many bad guys. So just keep reporting it.