The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has joined forces with law enforcement agencies in the USA, Japan, Chile and Canada to put a stranglehold on the sources of SPAM.
"This action is an example of regulators being proactive in protecting consumers", Acting ACCC Chairman, Mr Sitesh Bhojani, said today.
"We must do more than monitor the online space for strong cases with good evidence. Our challenge is to stay one step ahead of the scam merchants".
In the first action in Australia since the issuing of SPAM recommendations to government, law enforcement officers have identified 1,000 'open ports' across the world that can be used as relays for sending SPAM.
The operators of these ports have been sent letters from enforcement agencies asking them to close them down, reducing the opportunities for spammers.
Unsolicited email typically contains misleading claims, get-rich-quick cons, miracle cures, offers of restricted drugs like Viagra, pornography and other illegal and unsolicited material.
Due to the often illegal or questionable nature of the content, spammers use open relays to attempt to frustrate law enforcement efforts to identify and locate the source of the emails.
The ACCC has been involved in the 'Review of SPAM' conducted by the National Office for the Information Economy, which seeks to address the SPAM problem in Australia. As well as encouraging international cooperative actions like this one, NOIE's recommendations contained in the final report to government includes a comprehensive education campaign to be delivered to the public about how to treat unsolicited emails.
The ACCC welcomes the opportunity to contribute to any plans to address the problem. The Government is also taking steps to draft legislation to implement NOIE's recommendation that SPAM be outlawed, and plans to introduce this legislation into Parliament by the end of the year.
"We are concerned that SPAM can be an elusive issue, and we are determined to work in close cooperation with other domestic and international Government agencies to ensure that it does not fall through the cracks", Mr Bhojani said.
The ACCC has close cooperative relationships with consumer protection law enforcement agencies in 31 countries through the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN), and also has a Cooperation Agreement on consumer protection with the US Federal Trade Commission.
The FTC has recently completed major studies on SPAM finding that:
86% of email addresses that are publicised on websites are 'harvested' by spammers, and receive unsolicited email;
63% of 'remove me from your list' requests are not honoured; and
66% of SPAM messages have falsified information in the 'from' or 'subject' headings or in the text of the email.
"The problem with SPAM is not confined to its contents. There are also questions about its very nature, and whether restrictions of some sort would be widely applauded from all quarters. Nobody would disagree that it is a costly and inconvenient nuisance", Mr Bhojani said. The ACCC offers the following advice to consumers of email services:
ask your ISP or IT provider about SPAM filtering products;
never open email from people you have not heard of;
never respond to unsolicited emails, however unwelcome – not even to 'unsubscribe' if offered;
if the email contains a breach of the Trade Practices Act 1974, keep it while you report it to the ACCC on 1300 302 502; then - delete the email.
