Leader of one of the largest
spamming operations in the history of the Internet was ordered to pay
US$15.5 million.
Spam, as we all know, is one of the most insidious evils of
the Internet age.
It amuses and profits only the senders. Which is why when people like
Lance
Atkinson get fined, spam receivers like you and me can rejoice. Lance
Atkinson,
a New Zealander now residing in Australia, was the ring leader of a
massive
spamming operation. Atkinson, along with his brother Shane and a
Christchurch
accomplice, Ronald Smits, sent 2 million spam
emails in a span of three months,
last year.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) discovered the three
culprits after a thorough
investigation supported by the New Zealand Department of Internal
Affairs,
organizations like Vodafone, Telecom, and Safecom Services. As a
penalty, Atkinson
has been asked to pay a fine of $15.5 million by a federal judge. The
penalty
seems small compared to the crime, doesn’t it? This can be attributed
to the fact that Atkinson and his accomplices cooperated with the
authorities
and the network began much before spamming was illegal.
Cases like these show that even though email and Internet
Service Providers
and software programs constantly strive to control spam problems,
spammers
always find a way around it. This calls for a global, collaborative
effort
to control this problem. Perhaps, experts from countries around the
world should
come up with a global surveillance system to keep an eye out for
spammers and
spam rackets. Whatever the case, you can be sure that Benchmark Email
will
always be supportive of any corrective action.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/compute/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501832&objectid=10612680
