Spammers here get a $55,000 dose of corrective medicine

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Spammers here get a $55,000 dose of corrective medicine

The Fair Trade Commission yesterday fined 25 companies for sending unsolicited commercial messages over cell phones or through e-mail, hitting them with penalties totaling 64 million won ($55,000). This is the first set of fines levied by the financial watchdog agency on commercial businesses for sending advertising mail or messages. The companies, according to the commission, continued to send spam even though some of the customers that received them had opted out of receiving commercial solicitations. Some companies sent the messages without identifying themselves or lied to customers, the agency said, by misleading them with message titles such as “You have won a prize.” “We will check such companies every six months,” said Son In-ok, director of the consumer protection bureau at the Fair Trade Commission. “We are going to order companies to suspend business as well as fine them if they send messages about pornography sites to the young or if continued sending mail to customers who requested to be removed from the mailing lists,” he added. Another official at the agency said, “We can also punish companies who disguise their message titles with phrases like “urgent report.” Seven Internet pornography sites were fined, as well as educational web sites, apparel shopping malls and perfume purveyors. Some analysts said that it would be difficult to cut the volume of spam mail only by investigations of the Fair Trade Commission, because those checks can only be performed on businesses registered as telecommunications companies or companies who identify themselves. In preparing the measures announced yesterday, the agency surveyed about a thousand companies that have sent such mail, but found the business locations of only 212. Customers can block spam messages by registering up to five email addresses and three cellular phone numbers at http://www.nospam.go.kr. by Kim Young-hoon
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