Illegal spammers tough to catch

Not all spam is illegal. The federal government allows unsolicited bulk e-mail so long as it meets certain requirements:

Subject lines cannot be deceptive.

Recipients must be given an opt-out option so they can be removed from the bulk e-mail list.

The sender must include a valid physical postal address in the e-mail and indicate it is an advertisement.

Senders cannot disguise their domain address or who is sending the spam

Violators of the law can face fines up to $11,000 per incident and even prison time.

But the law, known as the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, or CAN-SPAM Act for short, is difficult to enforce. It applies only to U.S. citizens -- if they can be caught -- and does not apply to people in other countries where the bulk of spam originates.

-- Nathan Halverson