One Step Ahead

Three months after Australia's anti-spam laws went into effect, many Australian companies are risking million-dollar-a-day fines by continuing to send unsolicited e-mail.

The Australian Direct Marketing Association recently conducted a survey of members, finding that 80 per cent of them were ignorant of the new laws. Many were still sending commercial e-mail to people without their permission - an offence under the new law.

I've seen this myself. Some of them were even from passing acquantainces who put me on their mailing lists without my permission; while others were from organisations who have clearly been trawling the Web looking for any e-mail addresses.

I report most of these offences to the Australian Communications Authority, and just this week they contacted me for a statement that they can use as evidence in future prosecution of spammers.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse, folks! You really must find out how to stay on the right side of the law. Otherwise, it could cost you your business or your house!

You can report violations of the anti-spam law to reportingspam@aca.gov.au.

Unfortunately, the new anti-spam laws won't stop spam - they will just make life more difficult for innocent people.