ACA takes alleged spammer to court

The Australian Communications Authority (ACA) is taking action against an alleged global spammer in the Federal Court in Perth.

The telco regulator has alleged East Perth-based company Clarity1 Pty Ltd and its managing director, Wayne Mansfield, sent out at least 56 million commercial emails in 12 months after the Spam Act started in April 2004. The ACA alleged that most of these messages are believed to have been unsolicited and in breach of the Act.

Also, the ACA alleged Clarity1 -- trading as Business Seminars Australia and the Maverick Partnership -- had harvested some of the email addresses to which the emails were sent. 

"[ACA] further alleges that Clarity1 Pty Ltd sent the emails from a network of servers around the world," said an ACA statement.

Dr Bob Horton, acting chairman at the ACA, said the regulator was seeking an interim injunction against Clarity1 because of the scale of the alleged breaches. The injunction, if granted, would be in force until the court hearing.

The ACA said UK-based international spam watchdog Spamhaus had claimed Mansfield and Business Seminars Australia were two of the world’s top 200 spammers.

Horton said the ACA had written to Australian-based companies on Spamhaus' list before Australia's anti-spam legislation came into force last year.

The Australian public and people overseas had contributed to the investigation, Horton said.