First Ever Spam Felony Indictment Issued

The indictment charges a North Carolina resident with fraudulent or falsified transmission of unsolicited bulk e-mail, or spam.

The frist ever felony indictment under Virginia’s tough anti-spam law was announced today at AOL corporate headquarters.

The accused spammer, listed as one of the top 10 offenders in the world by http://www.spamhaus.org/, was identified with the help of AOL users who utilized the “Report Spam” button in their email application.

“We applaud Attorney General Kilgore’s swift action to vigorously enforce Virginia’s tough anti-spam law. AOL, Virginia’s online industry, and especially our millions of members, stand to benefit from their hard work,” said Curtis Lu, Deputy General Counsel of AOL. “As part of AOL’s comprehensive anti-spam enforcement strategy on behalf of our members, we have cooperated in Attorney General Kilgore’s investigation of this defendant, and will continue to cooperate in actions brought both under Virginia’s tough anti-spam law and also the new federal anti-spam law when it takes effect next year.”

Read the whole news release at AOL.com.