Professional spammers – they claim to make hundreds of thousands, and even sometimes millions of dollars a year. However, spam is illegal; with the current antispam laws that are in place these individuals risk the chance of being charged with some incredible fines – and in some cases even serious prison time. In this article, we’ll take a brief look at one of the most prolific spammers in the industry, Jeremy Jaynes, and we’ll see just where everything went wrong for his operation.

In November of 2004, the 30-year-old Jeremy Jaynes (alias Gaven Stubberfield) was convicted in the state of Virginia for sending bulk, unsolicited e-mail (spam), although he was a resident of North Carolina. The reason for this is because he used several servers that were physically located in Virginia, and he was in clear violation of the state’s anti-spam laws.

Though the prosecution argued for a sentence of 15 years, Jeremy Jaynes was originally sentenced to 9 years for sending spam emails online. During the trial it was also revealed that Jaynes once had a job physically delivering junk mail, and he was operating numerous work-at-home schemes. His sister was fined $7,500 for using her credit card to purchase some of Jaynes’ online domain names, and a third defendant was acquitted.

Jaynes and his attorney appealed the decision, arguing that Virginia’s anti-spam laws are actually in violation of the United States Constitution. The case was heard by the Supreme Court on September 12, 2007, who originally upheld the conviction by a 4-3 margin. After Jaynes’ attorney filed for a rehearing, however, and the court later reversed its decision.