I think u have to shift the scalar first, and then shift the entire remaining content into the hash;

sub db_modify_account
   {
        my $a = shift;
        my %new_data=@_;
        while (($key, $value) = each %new_data)
        {
           print "The $key is: $value.<BR>";
    }
   }
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or else U can use passing by references.

see perldoc for perlreftut.