STREET SPAMMER IS SUED BY SEC By LAUREN BARACK
NY Post.
"May 13, 2003 -- There's one born every minute. A 20-year-old spammer who duped investors tricked by his amateurish messages out of $102,554 - then used the money for his living expenses - was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday.

Smith sent more than 9 million messages and maintained Web sites rife with spelling errors that purported to be guaranteed by a fictitious "Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation," from May 2002 through February 2003. Although he asked for minimum investments of $500 to $2,000, he attracted just 29 investors.

Spam has become the "it" word among federal agencies and politicians eager to please consumers who have grown furious at the amount of unwanted advertising clogging in-boxes. Most Internet service providers offer spam-filtering software for their customers, but even they admit that spam is a game of technology one-upsmanship.

"Spam was a nuisance a year ago, but now it's a big problem," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Schumer hopes to have a national bill that would create a no-spam list similar to New York State's no-call list, passed in the Senate this summer. The bill would call for a $5,000 fine for each day a spammer sends out unwanted e-mail, and allow for jail time if they refuse to stop.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce (http://energycommerce.house.gov/) is expected to introduce its own spam bill as early as today.

Even Andy Rooney has gotten into the anti-advertising game, commenting on Sunday night's "60 Minutes" on the flurry of unsolicited ads consumers see every day." [more]