ACCC closes the net on scam spammers
ACCC closes the net on scam spammers
Feb 22, 2005: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is taking the lead with a 48 hour worldwide blitz on scams in spam on the Internet, which involves the joining of forces of consumer protection agencies from around the world.
76 agencies from 25 countries will be included in the annual International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network's (ICPEN) Internet sweep, which includes participants from the London Action Plan against spam.
LAP was developed by the United States Federal Trade Commission and the United Kingdom Office of Fair Trading, to curb the activity of international spammers.
It draws together government agencies and private sector organisations in 21 countries and aims to encourage communication and coordination between members to achieve efficient and effective enforcement of anti-spam laws.
The ACCC will also be joined by 'sweepers' from the Australian Communications Authority, the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Office of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading, Tasmania, Consumer Affairs Victoria, The Office of Consumer & Business Affairs, South Australia and NSW Office of Fair Trading.
ACCC Deputy Chair, Ms Louise Sylvan, said cooperation with overseas counterparts and other Australian agencies is crucial in combating the spread of fraudulent and deceptive scams online.
"Scammers have evolved with technology and will pretend to be either people in need or legitimate organisations. Scams will prey on aspirations to be desirable, rich, clever and compassionate."
"Consumers are still being caught out and the month long focus on scams aims to arm consumers with the knowledge and skills to recognise, report and stop scams. Over the next 48 hours, we are collecting spams that come in honey pots, and then we shall use all of the forces from around the world to hunt down the origin of each spam email."
Sylvan says that this tracking down activity is done all of the time, but the purpose of this blitz is to spread awareness to the public about how they can wise up even further to avoiding being spammed.
"We want people to take a reality check. It a lottery email, or cheap loan sounds too good to be true, it probably is. People need to learn how to recognise a spam, through promises of instant wealth and free gifts, for example. If you see anything like this, especially if an email asks you for personal details, then don't respond, just delete it."
She believes that having all of the world's spam enforces look at the Internet so intensely on the same day will help them to find many of these scammers, locate their jurisdiction, and she hopes, bring them to court eventually.
She also advisers users to keep their computers updated with software, firewalls and spam filters and to report scams all the time. These scams can be reported to the ACCC Info centre on 1300 302 502, or by filling out a complaints form at ACCC's slam-a-cyberscam webpage, or through registering an overseas scam at www.econsumer.gov.
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