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back to article Singapore slings £18k fine at text-spam-spaffing biz owner

A Singapore tuition agency and its director have become the first to be prosecuted and fined under the country’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), which came into force on 2 January 2014. Star Zest Home Tuition, and its director, Law Han Wei, were each fined 39,000 Singapore dollars (SGD) (£18,800 $31,100) by the State …

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  1. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Going large

    A fine of nearly nineteen grand? Amateurs!

    In america, their fines are measured in the BEEELION. To such an extent that The Economist has labelled amercia's regulatory system as "the world’s most lucrative shakedown operation" - beating The Kremlin, The Mafia and The Chinese for the world's top spot. (article available online).

    0 1 Reply
    1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
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      Re: Going large

      364 valid complaints? Should have been £18k per complaint

      0 0 Reply
  2. Dogsauce

    The fine is probably adequate - this is a small company disobeying the rules, possibly through carelessness/ignorance rather than intent - a business spamming rather than a spamming business, an easy collar for the regulator. The fine will likely exceed the amount they would have gained from this campaign. It's unlikely to be a deterrent for the big boys who cover their tracks and operate globally with impunity, but might encourage a few local marketeers to operate with more care.

    The UK regulator would have probably fined them something like £50 or just told them to say sorry and promise not to do it again.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      " It's unlikely to be a deterrent for the big boys who cover their tracks and operate globally with impunity"

      Largely because the non-malware spamming business operates hand in glove with the global payment processors, and that's where the regulators should focus. You want to stop Vi@gra spam? Simply stop them taking payment with any major credit or debit card. So few people would know how to pay in bitcoins that the revenues from spamming would collapse.

      If the regulators really wanted to stop it, they could make it illegal for payment processors to take funds from organisations undertaking criminal or unlicensed activities, on the basis of the jurisdiction of the buyer. The spamming vendors themselves wouldn't be traceable, but the regulators do know where Mastercard live, and have the necessary sticks to force them to come clean. If you could stick Mastercard for twice the entire value of all such transactions they'd soon start being careful about who they do business with - as things stand their (and resellers) merchant services divisions probably have f***ing account managers to support the spammers.

      1 0 Reply
  3. A K Stiles
    Stop

    UK regulators - an idea:

    How about making it an offence, punishable with a fine which goes to the call recipient tax-free as expenses for time and distress, to call someone and not give the details of your company when you leave a message, either through an automated caller (which should be banned outright anyway) or by person. I, and I'm guessing a growing number of others will not answer the phone to unrecognised or withheld numbers. If you are a legitimate business with a valid reason to call, you don't with-hold your number, you leave a message stating your company name and the purpose of the call, and you leave a number I can call back which is likely to be included in all calling plans.

    Actually, a second idea:

    If you call me and actually get through, when I ask you from where you got my number, you should be legally obliged to tell me the source, so I can then trace back to which organisation has ignored my instructions that I do not wish to be contacted by them or their 'carefully selected' 3rd parties and again, they can be punished by a fine, which goes to me. </rant>

    Clearly having a caffeine issue, just not sure if it's too much or too little...

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