Starting June 2007, sending unsolicited electronic message in Singapore will be charged as civil offence. The online document can be viewed here.

Summary of the Bill (please READ the online document for clarification, I might summarized it incorrectly):

1. It applies to commercial email, commercial SMS/MMS
2. It doesn’t apply to telemarketers
3. unsubscribe request is effective maximum 10 business days after the submission of the unsubscribe request
4. It applies if the SPAM committed in Singapore (sender/organization is physically reside in Singapore)
5. sending email to addresses obtained by harvesting email address in the internet is ILLEGAL
6. Buying email address list obtained by harvesting email address in the internet is also ILLEGAL
7. The damage is not to exceed SGD$25 per message, and not to exceed SGD$1 Million in total, unless the plaintiff able to show that the SPAM has caused damage more than SGD$1 Million

So in order not violating the SPAM law, the email/SMS/MMS should:

1. for email, the subject must started with “<ADV>”
2. Must have unsubscribe facility

Hopefully this article helps, If you are going to send any commercial (please refer to the document, the description is quite long) message, please make sure you are not violating the law.

PS: Hmm… although it sounds like I’m advocating the spammers, I’m not. I hate spammers.