Spammers face fines of up to $500,000

The Government is intent on getting spammers on the run, attacking them this week on two fronts.

Information Technology and Communications Minister David Cunliffe has unveiled his Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill, with penalties for senders of unsolicited email of up to $500,000.

The Commerce Commission, meanwhile, has spent two days taking part in an international crackdown on spammers.

Cunliffe calls his bill an "important step in the war against spam".

The proposed legislation applies to messages sent in bulk by email, text and instant messaging services.

It says marketing messages can be sent only to people who "opt-in" to receive them and allows for fines up to $500,000 for organisations and $200,000 for individuals.

Cunliffe said the bill would complement industry codes of practice, technical measures and consumer education initiatives.

"While this bill alone will not solve the problem of spam, it is an important step alongside other measures to ensure New Zealand is not a soft target for spammers."

Direct Marketing Association chief executive Keith Norris would like a detailed definition of "opt-in", but in principle he supports the need to legislate.

"It's a global problem and we probably have to send a very clear signal to international partners that we are as determined as they are to wipe out this misuse of what is a wonderful communication tool."

The association has been working with InternetNZ, the Telecommunications Carriers Forum and the minister to ensure relevant and effective legislation.

"Our whole attitude, particularly to electronic marketing, is permission-based. We have an opportunity to clean up what should be one of the most effective means of communication," said Norris.

InternetNZ councillor David Harris, the author of a spam discussion document, said the legislation would bring New Zealand into line with other countries.

"Minister Cunliffe has been good about this right from the beginning. I think he's shown a good appreciation of the issues.

"I have every confidence that the proposed legislation will be what we're looking for."

This week, the commission ran a two-day internet sweep for scam spam sent to commission addresses, as part of a month-long international crackdown by more than 20 consumer protection agencies.

Fair trading director Deborah Battell said about 500 spam emails were examined by analysts, but she did not expect to find many scam spams originating from New Zealand.

That position is backed by spam statistics for January by IT security specialist Symantec.

After examination of more than 250 million electronic mailboxes, Symantec estimated that only 1 per cent of spam originated in Australia and Oceania compared with 61.1 per cent from America.

Scams aim to trap unsuspecting users into disclsoing bank details or sending money for goods or service that do not exist.

Battell said some scams targeted people for whom English was a second language in order to confuse them.

Symantec says 85 per cent of all spam is in English.

To date, no one has been prosecuted in New Zealand for sending a message that was fraudulent or breached fair trading standards.

But Battell said the commission would act against future offenders.

As a member of the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network, the commission will pass details from its two-day sweep to international partners.

"By having an international network, we try to be more effective on the international front, to send a pretty strong message to people that just because they are not operating within the confines of a particular country think they can get away with misleading, deceiving or scamming people."

Spam numbers

68 per cent of all email in January was spam, up 8 per cent on last year.

Between December 2004 and January 2005, email traffic (spam and genuine) increased 19 per cent.

85 per cent of spam is written in English.

61.1 per cent of spam originates in North America.

(Source: Symantec)