In Florida, a sentence has been handed down to a spammer who hacked into legitimate Bellsouth internet accounts to send out his junk. After pleading guilty, the man isn’t allowed to own, lease or use a computer for six years:
Frye was sentenced to one year in prison and an additional three years suspended sentence, with probation for a total of six years. The judge banned him from owning, leasing or using a computer or accessing the Internet for the entire six-year probationary period. The court also ordered Frye to pay restitution to BellSouth upon his release.
Will this serve as an example to other spammers? Probably not, as it’s usually very hard to track down who is sending what. But it is nice to see a proliific spammer get his comeuppance.