What are the penalties ... sending spam / bulk email?

There are thousands of people downloading software that can collect email addresses. Some of these software (i.e gsa email spider) can send an email message (containg an advertisement) to all the collected addresses. I know it is called spam and is illegal.

What is the penalty for sending out an advertisement to millions of people using the above mentioned software and do people actually get caught? I'm from South Africa. Think the law is different depending where you live.

It Italy one man has sended 180K email without autorization and now he is in prison. I think is impossible to sand e-mails to 1M people and be in accordance with the law. You can came from Alaska or another planet but you send e-mail to people from any country, and I think you must consider destination country too.

jail? A lot of countries take SPAM very seriously. If you don't have the users permission then don't bother, as I'm guessing email marketing is new to you.

Spam mail is illegal. Anything illegal has serious penalties starting from fines and even jail time.
The people who do this on a massive scale tend to keep themselves well hidden.

Im not new to IM but have never sent out mulltiple emails to people I don't know. I downloaded gsa email spider and are considering to use the features (that I purchased for $99). Just quering legal aspects ... regarding sending out mass email advertisements. Seems like I wasted $99

However, there are companies with thousands of subscribers receiving email every month. Think the only way a person can get into trouble would be if the receiver file a complaint against the sender.