Australian spammer prosecuted

An Australian company and its director have been fined a total of $AU5.5m (£2.2m) after they were found to have sent more than 200 million spam emails in a 12 month period.

The Perth-based spammer, Wayne Mansfield, and his company Clarity1, were found to have illegally sent out millions of spam messages in the 12 months since Australian spam laws were introduced in April 2004.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, said: 'This is the first time that spammers have been successfully prosecuted under the Australian Spam Act, and represents a victory for the authorities and the man in the street pestered by nuisance email.'

'Spam is a global problem, and robust action needs to be taken against spammers - wherever they are based in the world - in order to send out a clear message that their activities are unacceptable. Substantial penalties must be handed out to those people who choose to spam and spam again in their hunt for a quick profit,' said Cluley. 

Earlier this year, Justice Nicholson of the Federal Court in Perth rejected defence pleas that recipients had consented to receive the spam emails. Complaints about Mansfield's spam had been received from as far afield as the United Kingdom.

'Australia's Spam Act is a first step towards eradicating locally produced spam. However, it is only the combination of international cooperation, local legislation, law enforcement, technology enforcement and user education that will help put a stop to spam,' said Cluley.

Spam laws introduced to the UK in 2003 have yet to produce a single criminal prosecution, but Microsoft told Computing last month that it agreed a £45,000 settlement through the civil courts with Manchester resident Paul Fox after charging him with Trespass of Goods and breaching the Privacy and Electronic Communications Act, and Hotmail regulations.

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Further Reading:

Spam laws fail to measure up

Gartner slams Microsoft spam plans

Microsoft opens up anti-spam standard