Spammer fined $5.5 million for 231m messages: that's 2.3 cents each

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 29 October 2006 12:25

IT Policy - Regulation

The judge in the ACMA's first successful prosecution under the 2003 Spam Act has find the offending company $4.5 million and its managing director $1 million.

West Australian company, Clarity1, and its managing director, Wayne Mansfield, were found guilty in April http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/3966/127/ of offences under the Spam Act. The ACMA claimed at the time that Clarity1 had sent out at least 56 million unsolicited messages in the 12 months since the Act came into force.

However the ACMA now says the number was an order of magnitude greater than the figure it gave at the time. In a statement  welcoming the decision on penalties, imposed by Justice Nicholson in the Federal Court in Perth, the ACMA said "ACMA submitted to the Federal Court that Clarity1 Pty Ltd and Mr Wayne Mansfield sent out at least 231 million commercial emails in twelve months after the Spam Act 2003 commenced in April 2004, with most of these messages unsolicited and in breach of the Act."

In its April press release, announcing the successful prosecution, the ACMA said: "ACMA submitted to the Federal Court that in the twelve months after the Spam Act commenced in April 2004, Clarity1 Pty Ltd and Mr Mansfield sent out at least 56 million commercial emails with most of the messages being unsolicited and in breach of the Spam Act."

 ACMA media manager, Donald Robertson told iTWire: "The 56 million was the original figure used when the initial court action was taken way back in June 2005. The correct figure of plus 231 million was as a result of the forensic analysis and was the evidence given in the court hearing in February / March 2006 and that is what the judge found in his decision in April. The 56 million in the (April) media release appears to have been carried over from the earlier hearing."