Email spammer gets 9 years

A brother and sister in the US have been convicted of sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mail messages to AOL subscribers. It is the first criminal prosecution of internet spam distributors.

Jurors in Virginia recommended that the man, Jeremy Jaynes, serve nine years in prison and that his sister, Jessica DeGroot, be fined $7,500.

Jaynes amassed a fortune of $24m from his sales, prosecutors said. "He's been successful ripping people off all these years," AP quoted prosecutor Russell McGuire as saying.

Prosecutors had asked for 15 years in jail for Jaynes, and a jail term for his sister. But Jaynes' lawyer David Oblon called the nine-year recommended term "outrageous" and said his client believed he was innocent.

Spam messages are estimated to account for at least 60% of all e-mails sent.