The Ministry of Infrastructure is rolling out a campaign to track down and punish spammers with fines up to 100,000 zloty (23,000 euro).

By introducing changes to the telecommunications law, the ministry wants to open a special unit, called spam-box, where Internet users will be able to report cases of spamming.

There is profit to be made in the ‘spamming’ business: in order to earn 800 euro, it is necessary to send 1-10 million emails. However, the global spam market is worth about 10 billion euro annually.

“Operators will warn clients and provide free security programming. If a spammer ignores warnings, they will be fined,” highlights Jacek Strzalkowski of the Electronic Communications Authorities. The new regulations will mainly affect Polish Internet users because those who spam from abroad are not under the jurisdiction of the Polish legal system.

According to the data provided by Panda Security company, spam constitutes about 90% of all e-mail messages sent in Poland. The country is on the sixth place worldwide, as far as the amount of spam produced. New regulations may be introduced by next year. (jn/mmj)