An
Australian spammer has been ordered to pay a $95,000 administrative fine following
an illegal email marketing campaign for a business called Business Seminars NZ. This follows a harsher penalty imposed in
Australia for similar spam advertising where the same spammer was fined one
million dollars.
Internal Affairs in
New Zealand took action against Perth businessman Wayne Robert Mansfield after
receiving some 50 complaints from members of the public over a five month
period in 2010 about unsolicited emails advertising business seminars.
Evidence was given
that in the region of one million unsolicited email messages were sent to New
Zealand addresses promoting a series of business seminars on social media
marketing. Internal Affairs identified
that seminars were advertised at $199 a seat, to be held at various locations
around the country, such as the Langham hotel in Auckland. The seminar schedule indicated four seminars
might be held per day at each venue.
The Unsolicited
Electronic Messages Act 2007 prohibits spam.
Spammers face administrative fines, not criminal prosecutions. Identified spammers face a court-ordered fine
unless they can prove on the balance of probabilities that recipients consented
to the emails in question.
Spammers not only annoy
recipients, they clog up the internet, slowing traffic and reducing
productivity. The court was told an
estimated 120 billion spam emails are sent worldwide every day.
Mr Mansfield did not
appear in court. Evidence was given that
he had initially responded to Internal Affairs requests for information, but
then stopped.
Justice Wylie said
evidence indicated there was no consent given for the emails sent. Five databases were used for the advertising
campaigns. The number of addresses on each
database ranged between 66,700 and 80,700.
Mr Mansfield admitted buying email addresses from a third party. An analysis of some 19,200 addresses from the
databases identified that 14% were recipients inherently unlikely to consent to
any emails: being not for profit sites, technical addresses used for website
administration or the likes of military email addresses.
Mr Mansfield had
conceded to Internal Affairs that his emails were being blocked as spam by
various internet service providers. He
had changed his IP address to try and circumvent this restriction.
The 2007 Act is
modelled on Australian legislation, but with lower maximum penalties. Mr Mansfield featured in Australian
litigation from 2006 where he was fined one million dollars for a spam campaign
in which 70 million emails were sent to some five million recipients.
Internal
Affairs v. Mansfield – High Court, Auckland (14.08.13)
13.021