Leader: Spam wars hotting up

The battle to conquer spam has taken a number of interesting turns so far this week.

Perhaps most notable among these is news that spammers are being brought to justice on both sides of the Atlantic.

A New York man, dubbed the 'Buffalo Spammer', is facing seven years in prison after sending 825 million messages in his prolific career as a spammer.

The laws under which the Buffalo Spammer has been convicted relate to identity theft - namely the use of email addresses obtained through illegal means. Many people have written this off as a drop in the ocean but if the deterrent is severe enough and the conviction the first of many - we wait to see if that's the case - then this drop in the ocean could yet prove very significant.

Meanwhile in the UK a Nigerian man has been sentenced to 20 months in prison after being found guilty of fraud. The man was perpetrating the notorious 419 scam - so called because of the section of Nigerian law which covers advanced fee fraud.

The man had taken one victim for at least £20,000 already when police arrested him carrying forged documents and letterheads for the purposes of committing another fraud. In total police tracked down 11 victims of this conman.

Whatever you think of the victims - and they are doubtless as stupid as they are greedy - such a conviction could also prove worthwhile. The organised crime rings many of these individuals work in need breaking, even if the gullible victims don't help matters.

While silicon.com has stated all along that it will be technology which wins the war, there is also increasing pressure on the UK government to make the kind of resources available that will bring about convictions for spam and email fraud.

News this week that the UK is a haven for cyber scammers will have increased that pressure. It's not a reputation any government will be keen to foster - just ask the Nigerian government which has been dogged by its association with fraud due to the small band of prolific email fraudsters - many of whom aren't based in, or possibly have never even been to, Nigeria.

But to think fighting on these established battlegrounds will end the plague of spam is naïve. News that instant message spam - rather appallingly know as spim - is a growing threat on the horizon reminds us that often by cracking down on an area you are often just smoking out the individuals and forcing them to commit similar crimes via a new means.