A new anti-spam law went into effect October 1 allowing Maryland's state attorney general to impose jail time and large financial penalties on spammers who use false or misleading information.
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. signed the law in May, getting a heap of praise from America Online calling it "a huge leap forward" in the spam war. "This… will help us rein in the kingpin, outlaw spammers who continue to use tactics of fraud, deceit and evasion to avoid state and federal laws, as well as trick AOL's anti-spam filters," AOL said about the new law.
Spammers who hack into computers to send spam, mislead recipients or Internet service providers knowingly about a message's origin, use fake information on source and routing of e-mail, and use fake identities to register fifteen or more e-mail addresses to spam from those addresses, will face up to five years in jail and fines up to $25,000.
Maryland's attorney general can also seek civil restitution, through penalties up to $25,000 per day – about $2-8 per spam message – for every piece of spam sent under the new state law.
