Florida gets the first suspension against ’spammers’

The U.S. state of Florida has scored its first victory against email spam, because a court banned two men who performed the bulk of which they are charged, said a spokesman for the state on Tuesday.

The Attorney General of the State of Florida, Charlie Crist, said the penalty to prevent these men continue to send emails tricksters is part of its first actions under the anti-spam law passed last year.

The men, Scott Filary, 25, and Donald Townsend, 34, both of Tampa, are accused of sending over 65,000 emails, many with a false case and hidden source.

Emails sent to recipients to websites that Crist said were

related to fraud or illegal activities, such as selling pharmaceuticals and cigarettes over the Internet or to supply a platform for illegal downloads of copyrighted movies.

The research was assisted by the software giant, Microsoft, whose operating system, Windows runs on more than 90 percent of computers worldwide. The anti-spam law in Florida may be fined up to $ 500 (385 euros) by email, or $ 24 million in the case where the two accused, said Crist in a statement. The national anti-spam law took effect in early 2004 but has done little to stem the collapse of litter caused by email spam. It is estimated that over 80 percent of email traffic consists of spam, costing companies billions of dollars a year, lost productivity and bandwidth. A court in Virginia this week jailed a man in North Carolina for nine years for sending millions of spam emails, but the court postponed the sentence while the case was appealed. This is the first prosecution for a 'spammer'.