CRTC Issues $1.1 Million Penalty To Compu-Finder For Spamming Canadians

zentigger writes Canadians rejoice! It looks like the new anti-spam regulations might actually have some teeth! Today, the CRTC issued a $1.1 million fine to Compu-Finder for violating Canada's anti-spam legislation by sending commercial emails without consent, as well as messages in which the unsubscribe mechanisms did not function properly. Furthermore, an analysis of the complaints made to the Spam Reporting Centre of this industry sector shows that Compu-Finder accounts for 26% of all complaints submitted.

Comments

Given the depth of surveillance

[msobkow]

Given the depth of surveillance performed by CSEC and the NSA, I think it's been *proven* that telcos could *easily* detect and block the sources of robo-calls, too.

My guess is the robo-call companies pay them big bucks to harass everyone, so the telcos have no motivation to do shit about the problem.

Re:Given the depth of surveillance

[tompaulco]

There should not be exceptions for Charity/Political calls. Those are still unsolicited. They are not covered by the first amendment. Free Speech does not mean that you can annoy people to your heart's content, on their dollar. They can make all the charity handout messages or political statements they want and if people are interested in hearing them, then people can call them.

Re:Given the depth of surveillance

[tompaulco]

Why should a person have to pay to avoid something that somebody is illegally doing to them? The cost of the crime should be on the criminal, not the victim.

So what happend to the "Do Not Call" list?

[Quasimodem]

I signed up for that when it first came out and have been getting more calls since --- both (semi) human and robo --- than I ever did before?

26% seems a bit high

[CastrTroy]

Considering all the different spammers out there, it's hard to imagine any single entity getting 26% of all complaints. Somebody must have been really out to get them, or there must not have been that many complaints submitted. From the quick glance I did, I couldn't determine how many complaints they got, or how many emails this company sent out. They probably would have not gotten such a big fine if their unsubscribe links worked.

I'm from Canada, and as much as I don't like spam, I think that this goes a bit too far. Spam filters are so good now that I rarely see spam in my inbox, and anything that isn't caught can easily be blocked by a filter. This may stop a few companies within the country from sending out emails, but the vast majority of spam comes from outside the country, and this law can't protect against that. It really makes it difficult for small companies to verify that they comply with the regulations. When even companies like Microsoft stop sending out important emails, because there's no way to verity that they have consent for the emails they are sending out, then there's not much the small companies can do to cover themselves if somebody was to complain.

Re:26% seems a bit high

[DamonHD]

Just because *you* don't get SPAM doesn't mean that it isn't a problem in a number of ways.

I get 10,000+ SPAM attempts per day. I;d have to give up well-known and memorable emails addresses to begin to trim it.

Legit inbound and outbound mails get lots in the SPAM wars, eg people miss important mails of mine, and I miss theirs.

SPAM traffic also wastes bandwidth and power in my networking equipment and servers; visible and significant for a partly off-grid system for example.

SPAM filters are a poor fix for a pernicious problem that has destroyed what was a wonderful communications service. I was using email before SPAM existed.

Rgds

Damon

Re:Now figure out a way to stop the phone calls.

[CohibaVancouver]

The robo-calls make me very, very angry.

Chill.

Hang up the phone and get on with your life.

Getting "very, very angry" just fills your life with stress for now reason and leads you to an early grave.

I'm all in favor of rejoicing for no reason

[idontgno]

But frankly, I'd hold the applause until after the penalty is collected and Compu-Finder is actually disbanded. Because frankly, it's a hollow victory if they move, change their corporate name, hire a fictitious body of corporate officers, and resume where they left off.

They're frakking spammers. What makes anyone think this bureaucratic announcement actually will matter?