Dutch Spammers Fined for the First Time
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For the first time, Dutch authorties issued fines under the nation&#39;s ban on unsolicited e-mails or SPAM. The ordinance took effect in May of this year.
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(InfoWorld) - The European Commission has warned its member states to beef up their efforts to cut spam, spyware and malicious software, after research showed that up to 85 percent of all e-mail received in the European Union is unsolicited.The findings come four years after the EU adopted anti-spam legislation in the form of the e-privacy directive. "It is time to turn the repeated political concern about spam into concrete actions to fight spam," Viviane Reding, the commissioner for Information Society and Media, said in a statement on Monday.If there is no improvement by this time next year, Reding will consider introducing new legislative measures to fight the scourge, she said.She pointed to the Netherlands as an example of how the current legal regime can be used to cut spam. Hollandâs spam-busting unit, known by the initials OPTA, has just five full-time staff and â¬570,000 (US$747,000) worth of equipment, and has succeeded in cutting spam by 85 percent. âI'd like to see other countries achieving similar results through more efficient enforcement,â Reding said.Finland was also singled out for praise. A filtering system there has cut the amount of spam to 30 percent of all e-mail, from 80 percent two years ago, the Commission said.âWe encourage other countries in the Union to develop similar filtering means,â said Martin Selmayr, Redingâs spokesman, at a press conference Monday.The Commission is urging other countries âto lay down clear lines of responsibility to use the tools available under E.U. law effectively." Better cooperation with enforcement authorities from other countries, including countries outside the Union, is essential to defeat the spammers, the Commission said.The U.S. remains the single biggest source of spam, accounting for 22 percent of all spam received in the EU, the Commission said. China is the second largest source, accounting for 13 percent. France and South Korea rank joint third at 6 percent.The U.S. and the EU have agreed to tackle spam through joint enforcement initiatives, the Commission said.Last year, Ferris Research estimated spam to cost â¬39 billion worldwide, while fellow researcher Computer Economics calculated malicious software to cost â¬11 billion worldwide.The Commission's latest communication on spam is available here in several languages.
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A Las Vegas company has been fined $2.6 million and ordered to stop sending spam, making false claims.
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To curb spam, users will be charged for accessing their e-mail via Outlook.
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Duo arrested for 1.6b e-mails   Two computer programmers have been arrested on suspicion of sending out 1.6 billion spam e-mail messages, violating commerce laws, police said yesterday.
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Watchdogs in the Netherlands have taken the first strike in an ongoing campaign against unsolicited e-mail by levying fines against three spammers.
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Unwanted e-mail from affiliates of an adult-entertainment company have garnered a $465,000 penalty in a settlement with the FTC, the latest in the agency's successful crackdown on sexually explicit junk e-mail.
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A North Carolina man has become the latest example of Virginia's crackdown on spam, after being found guilting for sending hundreds of thousands of unwanted advertising e-mails. Jeremy Jaynes, considered one of the top ten spammers in the world by Spamhaus, was sentenced to nine years in prison. "This is a major victory for Virginians and all Americans," said Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore in a statement.
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Dutch telecommunications regulator OPTA, which is responsible for regulating spam in the Netherlands, imposed three separate fines this week, the first since the Dutch government agreed in May to a ban on unsolicited e-mail to consumers.
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Spammer Convicted to Nine Years in Prison  Yesterday the first two spammers ever were convicted of a felony for sending fraudulent unsolicited commercial e-mail - spam. Jeremy Jaynes and Jessica DeGroot, a brother and sister team, were convicted in a Virginia court Wednesday of sending AOL users millions of unsolicited commercial ...
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A US brother and sister become the first people criminally convicted of sending spam e-mail.
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A plan to bump up the bandwidth bills of spammers seems to be getting out of control. Earlier this week Lycos Europe released a screensaver that bombards spam websites with data to try to increase the cost of running such sites.
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Telecom regulators in the Netherlands have levied fines against three spammers in what OPTA, the Dutch telecom regulatory agency, is calling the first strike in an ongoing campaign against unsolicited e-mail.
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LEESBURG, Va. - A brother and sister who sent unsolicited junk e-mail to millions of America Online customers were convicted Wednesday in the nation&#39;s first felony prosecution of distributors of spam.
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Text of report by Radio TV Hong Kong Radio 3 audio website on 28 May  Starting from Friday [1 June], people who send electronic spam could be jailed for five years and fined 1m dollars [approx 128,000 US].
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Across the Internet a muffled cheer rises to greet the news of a spammer sentenced to a nine-year prison term for sending junk mail to AOL customers in the Virginia-prosecuted case against
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One of the top 10 spammers in the US has been sentenced to nine years in prison for illegal spam activities under Virginia&#39;s anti-spam law.