The Chinese Ministry of Public Security has announced that the sale of e-mail address lists is illegal in an attempt to reduce the level of unsolicited commercial e-mail, or spam. According to ChinaOnline.com, an official has said that violators will be punished under the criminal law, civil law and the Computer Information System Security Protection Regulations.

In Australia, a man has received the country’s first custodial sentence for sending spam. Steven Hourmouzis from Victoria was convicted of two counts of making false assertions over the internet to encourage share buying. He was sentenced by a Melbourne court to two years in prison with a 21 month suspension.

Hourmouzis spent $65,000 buying shares in a US Nasdaq-listed company, Rentech. He then sent 4 million e-mail messages stating that the company's share price was set to rocket by 900%. He made supporting statements on internet financial bulleting boards.

According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, in one day’s trading Hourmouzis sold his holdings at a profit of $17,000 after the share price doubled.

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