The Spam Cryer

Lance Atkinson only fined $63,400 USD by New Zealand because he ‘co-operated with authorities

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December 23rd, 2008

Lance Atkinson, a prolific spammer since 2005 as part of ‘HerbalKing’ the ‘#1 worst spam gang of 2007, 2008′ according to the Spamhaus ROKSO list has been fined only $92,715 AUS (about $63,400 USD) by authorities because, according to Justice Christine French of the High Court in Christchurch, of the co-operation and candor of Lance in the early stages of the investigation.

This is in contrast to the 2.2 Million dollar USD fine assessed against Atkinson by the FTC in 2005.

The Spamhaus article points out that Australia has very strict anti-spam laws
(http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/ems/0/2003/0/2003092501.htm) and the maximum fines for a ‘body corporate with a prior record’ could be as high as 1.1 million (AUS) or $220,000 (AUS) for ‘a individual with prior record’, just for sending the spam messages.

If you add in the maximum fines for not including accurate sender information ($550,000 corporate / $110,000 personal) for not having a functional unsubscribe facility ($550,000 corporate / $110,000 personal) and supplying, acquiring and using address-harvesting software or harvested-address lists ($550,000 corporate / $110,000 personal) these fines could have been much higher for Lance.

Sydney Morning Herald.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/security/kiwis-nail-big-time-spammer/2008/12/22/1229794316883.html

Herbal King
http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/evidence.lasso?rokso_id=ROK7802

While this is great that Lance has been fined if we take a step back and look at the bigger picture we have to ask. If fines worked why didn’t Lance and the whole Herbal King group stop spamming in 2005?

While the laws applied in this particular case are very strict they have not stopped the flow of spam. It looks like one solution may be to add confinement in addition to the monetary fines for repeat spammers with additional time for repeat offences similar to how other criminals are treated.

While the botnets are very automated and will continue for a while after the masters are incarcerated eventually with no new commands the botnets will go dark.

But what do I know? Your thoughts on this issue?

- Shaun

Entry Filed under: Anti-Spam, Botnets, Bulletins, Uncategorized