Unsolicited commercial e-mail, such as advertisements, solicitations or chain letters, is the ‘junk mail’ of the information age.  When unwanted mail is hand delivered to your home or post office box, you can ask the postmaster not to deliver it. When telemarketers call you at home you may ask to be taken off their solicitation list.  But there is little recourse for citizen’s whose e-mail in boxes are flooded with unsolicited correspondence. 

    Currently, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are developing programs that require the individual sending the unsolicited message include a valid e-mail address, which can then be replied to in order to request that no further transmissions be sent.  Under these programs, once the individual sending the original e-mail receives a request to remove an address from their distribution list, they are required to do so. 

    However, offending spammers get around this requirement by using the e-mail address of an unsuspecting user to spam others. To address this problem I recently introduced legislation to give law enforcement the tools they need to prosecute individuals who send unsolicited e-mails that clog up consumers’ in boxes: the Anti-Spamming Act of 2001. 

    This legislation makes it a criminal offense to fraudulently use another individuals e-mail address to send spam. An individual who does not comply with the law may be subject to a fine of up to $100,000 or one year in jail. 

    Consumers are not the only ones victimized by spam.  In recent instances, unsolicited e-mail transmissions have paralyzed small Internet Service Providers by flooding their servers with unwanted e-mail.  This has the potential to do great damage to small ISP companies and the communities they serve. 

    When spam causes an ISP’s server to crash, it requires extra manpower and cost to repair. It hurts all the individuals and businesses whose activities are disrupted during the crash.  Costs must either be absorbed by the small business owners or by the consumers that they serve, but spam senders are not held accountable for their irresponsible transmissions. 

    Jupiter Communications reported that in 1999 the average consumer received 40 pieces of spam.  By 2005, Jupiter estimates, the total is likely to soar to 1,600. These numbers are truly astounding. Unsolicited e-mail messages burden consumers by slowing down their e-mail connections, and cause big problems for the small business owner who is trying to compete with larger companies.  It is my sincere hope that the House of Representatives will act quickly on this important legislation to put a stop to unwanted spam. 
 

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