Last week an Australian spammer and his company were fined more than US $4.2 million for sending out millions of unsolicited emails. Wayne Robert Mansfield, from Perth in Western Australia, was given a personal fine of more than $750,000, while his company will have to pay out nearly $3.5 million. The federal judge who presided in the case called spam annoying, costly to fight and a threat.

Australia has had anti-spam laws in force since 2004, but this is the first successful prosecution that led to a financial penalty. Wayne Mansfield’s marketing company, Clarity 1, sent out an estimated 280 million junk messages between 2004 and 2006, of which as many as 74 million were actually delivered into people’s inboxes. Judge Robert Nicholson, who found Clarity 1 and its director guilty of contravening Australia’s anti-spam legislation, claimed in his deliberation that spamming actually constituted a “threat to the functionality of the Internet”. He also stated that junk emails were a source of annoyance and, more importantly, caused direct financial losses to users, who, for instance, have to purchase blocking software. Indirect losses are also caused by the time taken to deal with unsolicited email.

Australian anti-spam campaigners are extremely pleased by the substantial fine, but have warned that it will not put a total end to spam. According to figures, most of the spam received in the country comes from abroad, which means Clarity 1’s spamming campaign was actually a drop in the ocean for Australian users. However, it is clear that a strong message directed at spammers in the country is a welcome outcome, as it represents a starting point in the real fight against the problem. And at least one spammer in Australia will not be able to conduct business any more, as Clarity 1 has been banned from sending out junk mail in the future.