Virgin Mobile punished for sending spam

Virgin Mobile Australia will pay the media watchdog $22,000 after it sent email promotions to people who had opted out of receiving marketing material.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigated alleged breaches of the Spam Act by the mobile phone company when it was made aware of an email being sent to customers who had opted out of receiving promotional material.

"To make sure you're still certain about this choice, we just wanted to quickly show you some examples of recent offers that we've sent to customers", the text of the message read.

ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said the messages were commercial in nature and sent without consent and without an option to unsubscribe.

"The key tenet of the Spam Act is that commercial electronic messages cannot be sent without the consent of the recipient," he said.

"An organisation must respect a person's desire not to receive commercial electronic messages, even if it is just to ask if they have changed their mind."

ACMA has accepted an offer from Virgin Mobile to pay the watchdog $22,000, re-examine its email policies and provide extra staff training.

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