Global cooperation required to combat spam

There must be greater global cooperation around security, law enforcement and consumer awareness if the spiralling problem of spam is to be tackled.

Public and private body representatives from 20 countries met at an international spam convention hosted by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the US Federal Trade Commission in London today, to establish an action plan for fighting spam across country borders.

A key aim of the plan is to create a point-of-contact list of those in charge of spam in every country in the hope of being able to more quickly track down and prosecute spammers who operate across international borders.

FTC chair Deborah Majoras said: 'There is no more an intractable consumer issue with the most international impact than spam. And we must combat spam with a three-fold strategy of enforcement, education and public/private partnerships.'

Figures from anti-spam software vendor Brightmail show that 60 per cent of all email traffic is now spam, up from half in 2003, and less than 10 per cent in 2001.

Spam is increasingly linked to fraudulent or deceptive behaviour. It is also estimated that around 80 per cent of spam received in the UK, originates from other countries, highlighting the need for cross border collaboration.

But Information commissioner Richard Thomas warned that regulators should not waste time establishing policies.

'There is much to be done in the fight against spam by cooperating with each other,' said Thomas. 'Spammers love it when regulators waste time amongst themselves sorting out who has responsibility for what.'

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See also:

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New survey suggests a fall in the 'annoyance' factor  12 Apr 2005

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