The Law:
   Tired of checking your email only to find that your box is full of junk email? As of this past June 11th, Washington State became the first state in the nation to try and regulate the flow of such junk email (Also known as Spam). While the new law does not prevent unsolicited commercial email, it does make it illegal to falsify return address information, to use misleading statements in the subject line, and to use the email address of a third party without their permission.

Who is Covered:
   This law applies only to email sent from a Washington State based computer, or email sent to a Washington State based computer. It does not cover email you retrieve from computers outside of the State from such services as Rocketmail or Hotmail, nor does it cover email users in other states unless the email in question was sent from within the borders of Washington State.

What You Can Do:
   If you feel you have received email in violation of this law, you may stand to receive $500 dollars in compensation for each proved vialation. To file a complaint with the Attorney General's Office about illegal, unsolicited, commercial email recieved since June 11, 1998 you can contact the Attorney General's Office:

Phone: (800)-551-4636
Email: junkemail@atg.wa.gov