An Australian man has been convicted of artificially inflating the share price of a company in a bid to make a quick buck.

George Hourmouzis was sentenced for a two-year stretch - with 21 months suspended - by a Melbourne court after it heard how he dispatched four million unsolicited e-mails in a bid to ramp up the share price of US outfit Rentech.

According to Ananova: "The practice of talking up share prices on the internet is known as 'spamming'".

And here's us thinking that talking up share prices is called "ramping" or "pump and dump" and sending out unsolicited commercial email was spamming.

Well you learn something new everyday. ®

Man jailed for financial internet scam Ananova's report