For too long, we've been reporting on frauds, viruses and other nasties that catch people out online. This month, the law enforcement agencys who fullfil the role of the good guys finally land some punches - in three separate cases, the scum of the internet world finally are held to account.

In a case of "you almost feel sorry for him", a financial planner from Melbourne has been found guilty and sentenced to a jail term for fraud. Robert Andrew Street pleaded guilty to five charges of obtaining financial advantage through deception. He spent around $1million of his clients money to pay 'fees' to scammers in the notorious Nigerian scheme. This scheme, which has been around for almost as long as the internet itself, uses email and the lure of up to $US65million to gullible victims, who are asked to pay up-front amounts to secure massive payments in return.

For more information on this character, check out the story online at ZDNet.

In an apparently unrelated case, an Australian based con-artist perpetrating the Nigerian scam was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Nick Marinellis pleaded guilty in the NSW District Court to 10 counts of fraud, and one of perverting the course of justice, after fleecing around $5 million from victims over an extended period. Using psudeonums including "Tim Webster"and "Alan Jones", Marinellis ripped of victims, including a Saudi Arabian Shiek, who parted with more than $500K. All was not lost, however, with more than $1.5M in assets recovered.

For more information you can read more about this story at News Online.

And finally, a US court has convicted a serial spammer and sentenced him to 9 years in jail, the first such conviction under new US Anti-Spam laws. Jeremy Jaynes, of North Carolina, was found guilty of sending out vast amounts of spam, predominantly to AOL customers – so much so that anti-spam crusaders rated him the 8^th most prolific spammer in the world. Getting to that level isn’t easy – Jaynes sent out more than 10 million emails a day, with his internet connections costing around $50,000 per month. However, with a $40 cut per sale of whatever he was promoting, and more than 10,000 fools per month responding to these schemes, he was ahead by around $AUD1million per month.

To find out more about this shady character, read the Associated Press report at iWon.