Pair jailed for five years in landmark 'spamming' case

Two US men who sent millions of unsolicited pornographic emails have been sentenced to more than five years in prison as part of the first prosecution under a federal anti-spam law.

Jeffrey Kilbride of Venice, California, and James Schaffer of Paradise Valley, Arizona, purchased email addresses and sent the owners of those addresses links to pornographic websites, prosecutors said.

They were found guilty in June of charges including conspiracy, money laundering, fraud and transportation of obscene materials after a three-week trial and were sentenced by a federal judge in Phoenix this week.

Defence lawyer Steven Goldsobel declined to comment yesterday.

Prosecutors said that Kilbride and Schaffer, both 41, started their spamming business four years ago, earning more than $2m (€1.4m) in commission.

They sent millions of unsolicited emails, prosecutors said. During nine months in 2004, Kilbride, Schaffer and an associate transmitted more than 600,000 spam messages advertising pornographic websites, according to court documents.

According to the indictment, Kilbride and Schaffer were paid commission based on the number of people who accessed the websites using the spam messages.

US prosecutors said that after Congress passed a law known as the CAN-SPAM Act cracking down on unsolicited pornographic emails, Kilbride and Schaffer tried to make it seem like they were sending messages from abroad by logging in to servers in Amsterdam. But those messages originated from Phoenix in the US, prosecutors said.

Kilbride and Schaffer were also ordered to forfeit more than half of the money they had earned.

Three other men charged in the case pleaded guilty and testified against Kilbride and Schaffer.