Georgia Spam May Soon Be A Felony

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue announced a new bill today that would set threshholds for spam sent to Georgia consumers. The bill, called the Georgia Slam Spam Email Act, increases penalties for spammers to $50,000 and up to five years in prison. Sending spam is currently a misdemeanor in Georgia, and penalties are only $1,000 and/or up to one year in prison.

Atlanta-based ISP Earthlink endorsed the governor's bill and allowed the announcement to take place at its headquarters. Earthlink president Gary Betty said, ""The Governor's initiative gives EarthLink and other businesses throughout Georgia an important new tool for shutting down rogue, spam e-mailers." Betty is also attributed with the statement that 80 percent of all email messages are spam.

Consumer Help Web encourages the use of a special Federal Trade Commission email address used to report spam that is deceptive. The U.S. government advises consumers to forward the email to spam@uce.gov. False, misleading or deceptive commercial email that does not provide an opt-out capability for consumers may be in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which took effect January 1, 2004.

posted by Consumer Help Web Editorial Team at 1:20 AM |