Christopher William Smith to pay $5.3 Million to America Online

Time Warner’s internet division America Online has just won a ruling in the court against a Minnesota man who has been charged with sending billions of spam mails to customers of AOL. Christopher William Smith is currently in jail awaiting trial on other charges.

The courts have ruled that Smith would have to pay $5.3 million to AOL for his criminal acts. The charges levied on Smith were that he operated an illegal online pharmacy in 2004 and 2005 and spammed users with mails related to porn sites, online college degrees, and bogus Viagra.

In fact, when the law authorities arrested him, he was living in a $1.1 million house. AOL said in a statement that the spammer in question is a poster child for the famous CAN-SPAM Act, which was enacted around three years back in the country to contain spamming on the internet.

The law was enforced around two years back and this case happens to be one of the biggest for AOL, which they have won in relation to online spamming. Let us hope more spammers are arrested and brought to task. It is hellish to live with spamming dropping in your inbox.