A Dutch spammer sent more than 9 billion e-mail advertisements promoting erection pills, pornographic Web sites and other sex products. Now the Dutch telecommunications regulator, OPTA, has fined the unidentified man $98,000 which may sound a lot but it still only .01 of a cent a spam.

It suggests that the man made $52,000 from spamming so his hit rate was incredibly low. That $52 for nine million spams. or $4 for 900,000. And OPTA said its estimate of how much spam the man sent was at the low end. So he was probably made around $4 for every million spams he sent or $1 for 250,000 spams.

OPTA’s decision for a higher fine came from the sheer volume of e-mail and the use of several hundred ‘zombie’ computers, or PCs penetrated by the spammer without owners’ knowledge and used to forward the messages.

Dutch authorities were alerted to the spammer by various computer users and companies, including Microsoft. OPTA Chairman Chris Fonteijn said governments and businesses need to work hand in hand to combat spam effectively.

Well, yes. Plainly spam is a dashed nuisance. But looking at those figures it is no sure and certain way to make money.

OPTA said, the spammer had argued in his defense that he had already stopped sending spam by the time he was caught, ‘not because he realized that what he was doing was a violation of the law, but because he simply wasn’t earning enough money by sending the messages.’

That sounds absolutely the case. If you only make $1 for sending 250,000 spams the game is not worth the candle.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, February 3rd, 2007 at 2:19 am under Spam.

Read more entries by Gareth Powell.
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