As judges consider tougher penalties for email spammers, CHARLOTTE PERCIVAL examines how we can help to make the internet safer.

THEY promise the earth but rarely deliver.

From lottery wins and free phones to virtual cosmetic miracles, spam emails and their creators have the potential to steal your personal details and destroy your computer at a simple push of a button.

But soon, the penalty for cyber criminals could be up to five years serving time at Her Majesty's pleasure.

Eighteen-year-old David Lennon, of Warwickshire, bombarded his former employer with around five million emails which crashed the company's email server.

Judges originally decided there was no case to answer. But the decision was later overturned when the High Court ruled spammers could be prosecuted under The Computer Misuse Act 1990.

Now he could face a retrial.

York solicitor Jonathan Mortimer believes a firmer approach to sentencing spammers is not far away.

Mr Mortimer, head of dispute resolution at Langleys Solicitors, said the act was designed to deal with computer hacking and viruses.

"It allows the court to impose a custodial sentence of up to five years, and the recent cases we have seen show that the court is prepared to impose strict penalties on those that abuse computer systems, as a warning to others," he explains.

"However, the problem was not as great over 15 years ago when the law was originally passed.

"As technology has developed, so has the ability of trouble-makers to cause even greater harm and inconvenience with almost everything we do being regulated by one computer system or another.

"As a result, I predict that both Parliament and the courts will take an even stricter approach, and impose longer custodial sentences.

"There is already talk of possible amendments to the Police and Justice Bill presently going through Parliament, amending the law so that the level of penalties can be increased."

But that's not something we have to worry about, is it?

Probably not. But we might not be as blameless as we think.

North Yorkshire business man Dave Roberts runs internet firm Nameline. He won an award for helping to convict a notorious internet fraudster who ran a £1.6 million email scam from Cambridgeshire.

"The worst culprit for spreading spam is the average person who has a broadband connection and leaves his computer on all day without Firewall or anti-spy software," he said. "They become main targets for people who plant trojan horse viruses.

"When that happens then the computer becomes what we call a zombie and can be used to propagate more spam.

"Whoever has planted the trojan horse can then hack into your computer with great ease, and control what happens.

"They can steal your data, or use your computer to send yet more spam."

When your mailbox is stuffed with offers of cash or mind-blowing plastic surgery, it may be tempting to hit reply and tell them to leave you alone.

But that, says Dave, would be the biggest mistake you could make.

"The worst thing you could do is reply because then they know they have a live connection.

"Spam emails aren't generally from live people sat at computers; most of it is generated by a computer programme.

"It won't think you're not interested the machine will not differentiate, it will just know your domain name is live."

Dave believes spam email will eventually take over junk mail.

He said: "We deal with it on a daily basis for thousands of people, and it is the plague of our lives, to be honest."

City of York Council trading standards officer Matt Boxall says email spam is becoming more prevalent in his work load.

He said: "We get a lot of complaints about spam emails going around, but it's actually quite rare for us to get a complaint that someone has sent money as a result of them.

"I think that would tend to show that people are quite aware.

"Direct marketing has always been a tactic that has been employed by companies, but it used to be more that people would send things through the post.

"New technology has opened up avenues. There is nothing illegal in simply sending an email out of the blue. It is perfectly lawful. What you're not allowed to do is make misleading claims or misrepresent prices."

As it appears most of us are active in recognising spam and not responding, Matt thinks the most vulnerable people are those running small businesses.

"It's becoming more common to target businesses for money because businesses don't always have the same level of protection that consumers do," he said.

"A lot of consumer or trading standards laws only apply to ordinary people like you and I.

"However, there are things you can do. If you're worried about spam, phone Consumer Direct on 08454 040506 or install a spam filter, and remember, banks and building societies will never send you emails asking for your account details they simply don't operate like that."

How I became a spammer

Press reporter Charlotte Percival unwittingly became a spammer when travelling around the world.

INITIALLY, my friends and family couldn't believe their luck when a spammer hacked into my hotmail account.

Attachments promising hot sexy pics' were probably more enticing than the 2,000-word travel essays I had been churning out on my travels, and everyone had a giggle before deleting them.

But the hilarity soon turned to concern, as everyone in my address book started receiving about ten sexy' emails a day.

Luckily, most realised it wasn't me and barred emails originating from my address from their system.

But I had unwittingly become a spammer and I couldn't do a thing about it! I was accessing my account from cyber cafes in India before the emails started to fire.

Perhaps I forgot to log out in one of them, or perhaps there was some dodgy software on the machines I will never really know.

But even after deleting my contacts from the account, the emails kept on coming.

I emailed hotmail to see how to close the account down, but was told it would take at least 30 days.

The attachments would almost certainly have contained viruses, so I'm thankful no one's system crashed.

Three months later and the account is still live, but the problem has stopped.

I'm still not sure what I did wrong, but I'm certainly more careful when logging on and off.