ACCC adds its voice to growing campaign against spam

ACCC adds its voice to growing campaign against spam

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has joined the chorus of disaffection towards spam by collaborating with law enforcement agencies in the US, Chile, Japan and Canada as they attempt to cut the supply of unwanted emails at source.

The ACCC has also been involved in the review of spam, conducted by the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE), which looks to tackle the problem of spam in this country.

Acting ACCC chairman, Sitesh Bhojani outlined why the ACCC has become involved in the fight against spam.

"This action is an example of regulators being proactive in protecting consumers. We must do more to monitor the online space for strong cases with good evidence. Our challenge is to stay one step ahead of the scam merchants."

Bhojani stressed that it was important that this problem, which is fast spiralling out of control, be confronted head on now.

"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."

Already, law enforcement officers in Australia and overseas have identified 1,000 'open ports' across the world that can be used as relays for sending spam.

Due to the often dubious and/or illegal nature of much of the spam content that floods our inboxes, those responsible for sending it use open relays to attempt to frustrate law enforcement efforts to identify and locate the source of the emails.

The operators of these open ports have been written to by law enforcement agencies to request that they close them down, thus reducing the opportunities for spammers to peddle their unwanted missives.

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