International trio unites to fight spam
- Added:
- Jul 05, 2004
The 'Memorandum of Understanding' (MoU) aims to deal with spam in a number of ways. International solutions and strengthening capabilities will be developed to trace and convict spammers; and cross border enforcement against spammers will take effect.
The MoU will be followed up by the UK's Office of Fair Trading which will gather consumer protection regulators from around 30 countries at a summit in London on October 11, focussing on spam enforcement issues, and training regulators in locating and investigating spammers.
Stephen Timms, Communications Minister said: "With most spam coming from outside the UK this deal forges our individual initiatives together and puts the fight against spam on a global footing.
"It's not going to solve spam overnight but it is going to help. It reinforces our determination to tackle spam with a combination of government and industry initiatives, technical solutions, and user awareness. Our countries will not be havens for spammers, and we are calling on other countries to join us in this initiative."
John Vickers, OFT Chairman, said: "Spam is causing growing email congestion and is a vehicle for scams against the public. Our partnership with Australia and the US strengthens our efforts to combat spam problems for consumers, which will be a high priority of the OFT's forthcoming Presidency of ICPEN."
The move follows a report by email security firm Blackspider, which found that the amount of time taken for 500 company employees to clean their mailbox of spam is the equivalent of three full-time jobs. The survey revealed that 41.7 man-hours are being lost everyday from people having to deal with this problem.
The MoU was signed by the Federal Trade Commission in the US, along with the UK's Office of Fair Trading, the UK's information commissioner, the UK's secretary of state for trade and industry, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Communications Authority.
"DTI ":http://www.dti.gov.uk/industries/ecommunications
