Experts call for global spam crackdown

At a conference called to debate anti-spam measures, US and UK government bodies said they had to work more closely to stop spammers.

Most spam originated overseas, so cross-border co-operation was essential to combat spam, delegates were told. Without teamwork spammers would flourish behind a "cloak of anonymity" and perhaps do real damage to proper e-commerce, the conference was warned. In 2001 only 10% of e-mail sent was spam but now almost 60% of all mails are junk, according to figures presented at the International Spam Enforcement Workshop held this week and organised by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

More than 20 nations sent representatives to the workshop, one of the first of its kind. Almost 80% of junk mail originates outside the country where people receive it, making the tracing of who is sending the messages the biggest problem facing anti-spam efforts. speakers told delegates.

Spammers hide behind the cloak of anonymity provided by the latest technology and the path from a spammer to a consumer's inbox typically crosses one border, if not several," said Deborah Majoras, chairwoman of the FTC.

Ms Majoras said tracing the origins of spam was the biggest problem and called for more sharing of information to help track down spam gangs.

John Vickers, OFT chairman, said spam was more than just a nuisance as statistics show that more than half of it is now produced by scammers keen to con people out of cash or useful personal information.