A US housewife has confessed to spamvertising internet porn
sites in her spare time. Jennifer Clason, 33, of Raymond, New
Hampshire, pleaded guilty to two offences under the US CAN-SPAM
Act, and one count of criminal conspiracy, at a federal court
hearing in Phoenix, Arizona on Monday. Clason, whose agreed to pay
back the money she made from her anti-social activities, faces up
to five years imprisonment on each count at a sentencing hearing
scheduled for 5 June.
By John Leyden for The
Register.
This article has been reproduced with permission.
According to a plea
bargaining agreement, Clason conspired together with two men
(named as Jeffrey A Kilbride, 39, of Venice, California, and James
R Schaffer, 39, of Paradise Valley, Arizona) in a gang that
allegedly distributed numerous spam emails containing graphic
pornographic images. Kilbride and Schaffer deny spamming,
conspiracy and money laundering offences. Their trial has been
scheduled to begin on 6 June.
The case against the trio followed more than 600,000 complaints
from AOL users that they had received spam messages promoting adult
pornographic websites between January and June 2004. Kilbride and
Schaffer allegedly used bank accounts in Mauritius and the Isle of
Man in order to launder and distribute the proceeds of their
spamming operation.
Two other people, Andrew D Ellifson, 31, of Scottsdale, Arizona,
and Kirk F Rogers, 43, of Manhattan Beach, California, have already
pleaded guilty to offences under the US CAN-SPAM Act over their
involvement in the operation. They are due to join Clason in the
dock at the sentencing hearing on 5 June.
In between bombarding net users with porno spam and caring for
her kids, Clason ran a website (mommyjobs.com) that offered help to
mothers seeking to work at home as an alternative to office jobs
and other forms of regular employment. In a brief bio
posted on the site, Clason said she's been "running a full-time
home-based internet business for seven years", and that she owns
more than 10 different internet sales websites.
© The Register
2006
