By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter


Senders of spam e-mail containing adult content or phishing scams will be subject to criminal charges as early as at the end of this year.

Currently, the nation only imposes fines on spammers.

Rep. Hong Chang-sun of the ruling Uri Party will submit a revision bill of the law protecting information about spam during the National Assembly’s plenary session in September, according to the Ministry of Information and Communication.

``We need to take measures against the growing number of spam e-mail. We need to use criminal punishment,’’ Hong said.

The amount of spam e-mail has increased since the government introduced in late March an opt-in formula for those who send commercial bulk text messages to cell phones or place promotional calls.

Because mobile marketers have to obtain explicit permission from potential e-mail recipients under the opt-in system, many mass callers are believed to have moved from cell phones to e-mail.

The new law will have clauses that ban sending commercial e-mails for illegal purposes, such as phishing and distributing adult content, and sentencing of up to one year in prison or a maximum of 10 million won in fines on violators.

The current law imposes up to 30 million won in fines on spammers who do not reveal the commercial intent of the e-mail or who do not inform recipients of how to take themselves off of mailing lists.

Hong has come up the draft of the regulations after holding conferences with ministry officials, lawyers and civic group members last month, and plans to initiate the bill in late September.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr