Spammers face new crackdown

AN international action plan to tackle internet spam has been agreed by 19 organisations from 15 countries at a London conference organised by the UK Office of Fair trading and the US Federal Trade Commission.

The London Action Plan aims to develop international links to address spam and spam-related problems. Participating government bodies have made commitments to actions including:

Encouraging communication and co-ordination between agencies to achieve effective enforcement.

Regular conference calls to discuss: cases, legislative developments, investigative techniques, ways to address obstacles to enforcement, consumer and business education projects.

Encouraging dialogue between government agencies and private sector representatives to promote ways to support government agencies in bringing spam cases and pursue their own initiatives to fight spam.

The action plan is open for other interested government agencies and for private sector representatives to join in to expand the network of bodies working together to combat spam.

Commitments in the action plan made by participating private-sector representatives include:

Establishing a designated contact within an organisation to facilitate responses and requests for enforcement related assistance from spam enforcement agencies

Working with other private sector representatives to establish a resource list of individuals within particular sectors working on spam enforcement

Participation in conference calls to assist law enforcement agencies in bringing spam cases and provide information on cases, new technology, trends in internet and spam and general data on spam as an early warning mechanism for government agencies

Assisting in training for government agencies to help their investigations and to bring spam cases

Assisting government agencies in understanding the best ways to request information from them.