Single spam email earns consultant £750 in court

AN internet consultant who won damages in a Scottish court after he received a single unwanted email has launched a campaign to help people tackle spammers.

Gordon Dick, 30, has set up a website with the motto “Make the Spammers Pay!” that tells people how to take legal action against those who send unsolicited email.

Spam makes up about 80% of the billions of emails sent each day, according to US internet security company Postini.

Mr Dick, who won £750 plus costs in an Edinburgh court after suing over the email last month, hopes others around the world will follow his lead.

The company which sent the email denies sending spam and says his campaign will damage firms by deterring them from using email as a marketing tool.

“It was a major decision to take,” said Mr Dick, from Edinburgh, whose website is scotchspam.org.uk. “I had never been in a court before, I’d never dealt with the legal process and I was doing this unrepresented.

“The more familiar people are with the legal system, the more likely they are to make use of it, which is why I published how you could go about doing it.”

His case has re-ignited the debate over how firms can use email marketing without breaking anti-spam laws.

Under European law, companies can only send marketing messages to consumers with their prior consent. This rule is relaxed if a company gathers someone’s address in the course of a sale and it gives the recipient a chance to object.

Transcom, a British-based Internet and satellite firm which sent the message to Mr Dick, said it was not spam, but an annual marketing e-mail to customers.

Company director William Smith said Mr Dick’s address inadvertently entered his company’s system when it received a group email which also contained Mr Dick’s name.

Mr Smith argues Mr Dick did not even “win” the case, but was awarded damages by default after Transcom dropped its defence to avoid huge legal bills.

Mr Dick said he did not want to stop firms sending emails to genuine customers. He accepts his campaign can do little to stop spam offering drugs, sex aids and weight loss pills.

“They have to be dealt with by technological means of filtering,” he said.