Singapore cracks down on spanners

THE GOVERNMENT of a tinpot country known as Singapore has issued a range of tough new anti-spam laws which could mean spammers are fined S$25 ($16) for each illegal email they send out.

Under the draft absurdly named the "Spam Control Act", messages will have to include an address or number to allow the recipient to unsubscribe and messages must clearly identify themselves as adverts.

So-called dictionary attacks and address harvesting will be banned. Anyone receiving unwanted messages can take civil court action against violators, who could be liable for damages up to S$25 dollars for each message.

Alas, the law applies only to spanners originating from Singapore and, as the Straits Times points out, most of the spam that hits the city comes from foreign "parts".

So there is additional stuff about this, here. µ