Spamming Their Way Into Prison

It doesn't always pay to spam. Two men convicted of sending pornographic versions of the annoying emails have been sentenced to more than five years in prison.

The two 41-year-old men, who put together an international spam ring that pulled in over $1 million, now owe fines of $100,000 in addition to the extensive prison time. Working out of Phoenix, the men used servers in Amsterdam to make it look like the scam was originating outside the country.

While five years might sound like quite a lot of time, these are far from the harshest sentences on record. In 2005, a jury blasted junk-mail king Jeremy Jaynes with nine years. (The prosecution wanted 15.) Jaynes appealed, and lost, but his case has now gone to the Supreme Court of Virginia. A decision is expected next month.—Gregory Mone

Via Information Week