Notorious Spammer May Spend Seven Years Behind Bars

A New York state man who sent millions of unwanted e-mail messages may spend up to seven years in prison after being found guilty of identity theft and forgery charges Thursday.

Reuters reported that Howard Carmack was found guilty on 14 counts of identity theft and forgery. Carmack, known as the "Buffalo Spammer," was the first defendant to face charges under the state's new identity-theft statute, according to a spokesman for New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

The state accused Carmack of sending out 825 million bulk e-mails using stolen IDs and forged addresses. His sentencing is set for May 27, and he faces a prison sentence of three and a half to seven years.

Officials from Internet provider EarthLink Inc. testified against him at his criminal trial. EarthLink won a $16.5 million judgment against Carmack last year.

Americans are flooded with unsolicited e-mail, called spam. Filtering company Brightmail Inc. estimates that 60 percent of all e-mail messages are unwanted bulk mail.

A national anti-spam law took effect in January, seven months after Carmack was charged.

In the first test of the federal Can Spam legislation, four Internet providers last month filed a flurry of lawsuits accusing hundreds of people of clogging e-mail boxes with millions of unwanted messages.

The four companies — Microsoft Corp., Time Warner Inc.'s America Online Inc., EarthLink Inc. and Yahoo Inc. — together serve tens of millions of subscribers. They shared information and other resources to identify who they say are some of the nation’s most prolific spammers.

The Can Spam legislation requires unsolicited e-mails to include a way for recipients to indicate they don’t want future mass mailings. It also bars senders from getting addresses off websites, and from hiding their identity through a false return address or misleading subject line.