An Australian human resources company has been left red-faced after receiving an official warning from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for breaching the Spam Act of 2003.

The Melbourne-based HR firm Astute Corporation, known as Astute People Solutions, received the official warning after numerous complaints were made in light of its heavy use of marketing e-mails. The act states that marketing e-mails cannot be sent to people without their consent.

ACMA said in a statement that after investigating the complaints, it was found that Astute People Solutions, a company that offers a number of online human resources solutions, including timesheet, payroll and interview software for organisations, was indeed sending out marketing e-mails to people prior to them giving consent.

"The ACMA encourages businesses to think not only about Spam Act compliance but about how their e-marketing practices impact on their reputation and brand," it said.

This is not the first company ACMA has investigated for breaching the spam act, and the act is punishable with fines of up to $11,000 for each individual violation.

Earlier this year Australian airline Virgin Blue (now Virgin) paid a $110,000 fine for sending e-mails to those who had supposedly unsubscribed from their mailing list.

There have also been numerous warnings issued to many Australian organisations since 2006, as well as 18 "enforceable undertakings" enacted by a number of high-profile companies found guilty of breaching the act.

Under the Spam Act 2003 it is illegal to send, or cause to be sent, unsolicited commercial electronic messages, including email, instant messaging, SMS and MMS (text and image-based mobile phone messaging).

If you are sending a commercial message, the message must satisfy the following three conditions:

Consent - the message must be sent with the recipient's consent

Identify - the message must contain accurate information about the person or organisation that authorised the sending of the message

Unsubscribe - the message must contain a functional "unsubscribe" facility to allow the recipient to opt out of receiving messages from your organisation

Messages do not have to be sent out in bulk to be considered spam, and under Australian law a single electronic message can also be considered spam.