Are you fed up with opening your email account and finding your inbox full of spam?
From today it is a criminal offence for European companies to send unsolicited e-mails. Companies and individuals who break the law could face fines of up to £5,000.
Spam now accounts for 50 per cent of all e-mails across the world; in 2001 it accounted for less than one in ten of all internet traffic.
It’s thought that 200 professional spammers around the world account for 80 per cent of the messages, selling anything from prescription medicines like Viagra to soft porn sites.
And it’s reckoned that wading through these unsolicited messages costs European Businesses more than £1bn a year.
This morning, Breakfast asked: will the new anti-spam laws work?
* Mike Sergeant met one man who conducts a battle against the spammers from a house-boat on the river Thames. Steve Linford runs the website Spamhaus.
click here to watch Mike Sergeant’s report
* We talked to the new Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, who will implement the new rules – and Nick Scales, from the internet security company Avecho.
click here to watch our debate in full with Richard Thomas and Nick Scales
* We also want to know what you think. Read on for more details – or jump to Breakfast’s email form.
click here to go straight to our E-mail form
What to do about spam
* Never reply to spam – no matter how tempting the offer.
* Do not click on anything which says “unsubscribe here”: your reply will simply confirm that yours is an active e-mail address.
* The Telephone Preference Service – which deals with unwanted phone canvassers – will also regulate Spam. Hotline: 0845 0700707
* If you have received Spam, you can report it to the office of the Information Commissioner:
Click here for the Information Commissioner’s website
Some anti-spam websites
Avecho
Click here to find out more about Mailwasher, an anti-spam technology device.
Spamhaus
web abacus
Are you plagued by spam – or is does it serve a useful purpose? Tell Breakfast what you think
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