Spammers Could Go To Jail
Congress is in the early stages of considering what to do about spam, but that doesn't mean spam artists who clog computers with massive volumes of unsolicited e-mail have nothing to worry about.
A tough new bill to combat spam was signed into law Tuesday in Virginia.
While about half of the states in the U.S. do have anti-spam laws, the Virginia law - which provides for fines and jail time - is a first in that it allows authorities to seize the assets earned from spamming.
The penalties can apply even if the sender and recipients live elsewhere because much of the global Internet traffic passes through northern Virginia, home to major online companies such as America Online and MCI and a conduit to major federal communications hubs in neighboring Washington and its suburbs.
"We want to be able to put out not only a potential criminal violation with the felony, but also to seize the proceeds from this illegal activity - their cars, boats, airplanes, homes," said Virginia Gov. Mark Warner.
Warner, who became a multimillionaire as a high-technology investor before he was elected governor, said technical filters and civil penalties have proven inadequate.
The new law is directed at commercial bulk e-mail, with certain provisions that kick in when someone sends at least 10,000 copies of a message in a single day or makes at least $1,000 from one such transmission.
"That's different than an occasional e-mail gone awry," Warner said.
The Virginia law also prohibits tools that automate spam and the forging of e-mail headers, which contain identification information on the sender and its service provider. Spammers often forge the headers to hide their identity and cover their tracks.
The same provisions could affect noncommercial unsolicited e-mail from charities, churches or political candidates if they exceed the volume limit or disguise the sender's identity, said Tim Murtaugh, press secretary for Virginia's attorney general.
Spamming has grown into a costly problem and is the No. 1 complaint of AOL's nearly 35 million users. That's according to Randall Boe, AOL's chief staff attorney, who says that although AOL blocks billions of pieces of spam each week, billions more get through.
John R. Levine, a board member of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail, applauded tougher penalties for spammers, but questioned how effective Virginia law will be.
"It depends on prosecutors to put them in line along with rapists, murderers and wife-beaters, so I don't think it will be very effective without additional funding," said Levine.
In a study released Tuesday in advance of a three-day forum on how government and businesses should deal with spam, the Federal Trade Commission said a third of spam e-mails contained false information.
Even on Capitol Hill, the flow of spam is impressive - and annoying.
In the Senate, New York democrat Chuck Schumer plans to introduce a bill imposing restrictions on spam, setting up a "do not spam" list similar to the "do not call" registry limiting the sales campaigns of telemarketers.
In the House, the charge against spam is being led by California democrat Zoe Lofgren, who plans to introduce legislation this week offering rewards for individuals who help track down spammers. Her bill would require marketers to label spam as "ADV:" and would prohibit false or misleading message headers.
State laws with similar provisions have been hard to enforce because they require tremendous resources to track down elusive spammers.
Earlier this week, AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft announced a joint initiative to combat spam through such techniques as identifying and restricting messages with deceptive headers.
Jupiter Research has estimated the average e-mail user will receive 1,600 spam messages per year by 2005, up from just 40 in 1999.