The Chinese Ministry of Public Security has announced that the sale
of e-mail address lists is illegal in an attempt to reduce the
level of unsolicited commercial e-mail, or spam. According to
ChinaOnline.com, an official has said that violators will be
punished under the criminal law, civil law and the Computer
Information System Security Protection Regulations.
In Australia, a man has received the country’s first custodial
sentence for sending spam. Steven Hourmouzis from Victoria was
convicted of two counts of making false assertions over the
internet to encourage share buying. He was sentenced by a Melbourne
court to two years in prison with a 21 month suspension.
Hourmouzis spent $65,000 buying shares in a US Nasdaq-listed
company, Rentech. He then sent 4 million e-mail messages stating
that the company's share price was set to rocket by 900%. He made
supporting statements on internet financial bulleting boards.
According to the Australian Securities and Investments
Commission, in one day’s trading Hourmouzis sold his holdings at a
profit of $17,000 after the share price doubled.
