ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- Nigeria -- which has global notoriety as a base for criminals exploiting the reach of the Internet -- is considering making spamming a criminal offense that could land senders of unsolicited e-mails in jail for three years.

"Any person spamming electronic messages to recipients with whom he has no previous relationship commits an offense," said the text of the draft law presented to the legislature this week.

A person found guilty risks either at least three years in jail, a fine equal to $3,500, or both.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/10/14/nigeria.spam.ap/

I'm a bit concerned about this law, because it can easily be abused, but I think they are doing it primarily because of the "Yahoo Boys" who have tarnished our image abroad. This seems to be a step in the direction, or what do you think? Will the bill be approved by the legislators?

Thats additional ammunition for EFCC. The good question is whether we have the infrastructure to check and prosecute Spammers in Nigeria.

Is that going to work or is it just by mouth?

Does the EFCC has the manpower and equipments to police the Internet in Nigeria. Even the wordings of the bill/law is flawed.

There is no way EFCC can police the Internet here.

To be honest with you, I don't think the EFCC or any security agencycan handle this task solely without involving ISPs. With a little helping hand from everyone you can start tracking them down one by one. Their emails can cause real pain and I'm talking from an ISP's point of view. Regardless of that no one will do business with you over the internet once they know you're from Nigeria, which is really really sad...

Well let's see how they intend to do make this work.

I think that would be a terrible law. It should be spamming with the intent to defraud or something like that. Just plain spamming shouldnt be a crime

@obong; what is plain spamming?

Spam is spam - unsolicited mail. As far as I'm concerned, the intent doesn't matter. The fact that its unsolicited and intrusion on privacy of individual makes it liable to whatever prosecution.

I laughed as I read this, how will they identify the spammer and him/her down?

It's just one of those mouth watering laws in Nigeria.

They have become American NATO

N - No

A- Action

T- Talk

O- Only.

So bibi, when a sales person comes up to you and asks you to be buy something, (which is an unsolicited offier) he should also go to jail/?.Why should someone go to jail just because they are doing it over the internet. The intent matters a lot, which is why the law makes a distinction between crimes based on intent. It may be annoying to recived unsolicited offers or email, but it should not be made a criminal offense, unless the purpose is to further a crime, such as advance fee fraud.

Plain and simple; unsolicited mail, offers, email or whatever should not be a crime. its just annoying

its a annoying crime.

Anyway, since Nigeria is now joining the big league by banning spamming, I'm waiting to see how it is implemented in Nigeria. You know, we Nigerians implement everything with fanfare (without much substance, strategy, plans, etc). My fear is that, under this new law in Nigeria, ISPs will become heavily targeted - rightly or wrongly. So what happens in Nigeria case:
1. Police start raiding ISPs or small businesses with Internet connectivity. Result = Settlement.
2. ICPC raids ISP and small/mid size businesses. Result=Maybe nothing, ISPs start policing their clients (confidentiality issue), Companies start spoofing their employee mails more=Breach of confidentiality.

Spamming should be extended to cover unsolicited phone calls offering offers/businesses. My brother has called with internet phones from some ISPs in the past (before the spread of GSM) and soon after, maybe a day or two, there starts the incessant 419 calls/fax to transfer money or collect project balance payments etc. The fact is is these ISPs take all the numbers and are either using it themselves or sell it to 419ers?. So the issue with ISPs is a much larger scope.

I hope the ISPs on this forum do not see this as an attack, but an encouraged to encourage their colleagues to live with some measurable ethics. The ISP in Nigeria has become a front for other shady deals.

Its not a crime. its merely an annoying act. And this draconian measure you are proposing is taking things too far and will actually harm small businesses trying to reach out to potential customers. Now you want to add phone calls to it as well? What about the shop keeper that asks you if you'd lie to see what wares he has to sell. Since its unsolicited, he should be sent to jail as well, i guess

@Obong; I disagree with you. There is a difference between targeted marketting and spamming. Yes, if a company sends out a mail once a while to its subscribers, then its ok. If however it starts sending tons on mails out to those who have not subscribed to it and of course advertise anything from pencil, to Indecency, viagra, inks, etc. They are all an abuse of the medium and should face prosecution. Look up the meaning of spamming, its not limited to advance fee fraud and types alone.

I get tons of mails clogging my email everyday from addresses I never subscribed to. You can say many of these are advertising, but to know that only about 5% of my inbox content is useful content and the rest, these so called advertising that clogs my servers, puts infrastructures in high maintenance and lures unsuspecting people into fake businesses. To my view (and represented by the Anti Spam law recently implemented in the US and soon in Europe), this is Spamming and needs to face prosecution. There is nothing draconian about this and if it is, then so be it.

Note: I know something about electronic marketting, in fact you can call me a specialist there. And to call spamming a markettng tool, thats sordid.

I may not be an expert in marketing, but i know a few things about the law being a lawyer. spamming may be annoying as hell, but its not illegal, and it shouldnt be made criminal unless (as i stated before) its done with the intent to commit a crime, like fraud. Some spam is illegal, but spam in general isnt

We will see how Nigerian law defines it.

Let's see. I hope it targets the criminal elements

lets wait and see if the bill will be accepted,and lets see who the first victim will be?

It will really be nice if they did something to check scams in this country.
It could really be annoying considerring that internet frauds started in nigeria while ghana, indonesia and a couple of others carry on...

lets keep our fingers crossed

The most important concern I have is that of innocent people who don't have the right software for maintainint opt-in lists.  They may be caught in a net meant for scammers.

I have head that before, any way it's not good to be sceptical; but can you blame me. The way I see it; it takes a thief to catch a theif. So what the EFCC people should do it to learn from the thieves; and see whether there are some things they can learn before making empty treats!  Have a nice day