ACA - MR0605

Media release No. 6 - 22 February 2005

Contact: paul.slocum@acma.gov.au

ACA signs London Action Plan on spam

The Australian Communications Authority (ACA) has endorsed the ‘London Action Plan’ on spam enforcement cooperation that draws together government agencies and private sector organisations in 21 countries to fight spam.

The plan was developed by the United States Federal (US) Trade Commission and the United Kingdom (UK) Office of Fair Trading to curb the activities of international spammers.

Under the plan, participants will undertake actions which include:

• encouraging communication and coordination between agencies to achieve efficient and effective enforcement of anti-spam laws;
• regular conference calls to discuss cases, legislative developments, investigative techniques, technological solutions, effective consumer and business education initiatives and ways to address obstacles to enforcement;
• encouraging dialogue between government agencies and private sector representatives to promote support for government agencies in pursuing spam cases and spam-fighting initiatives; and
• specific projects to attack scams.

“Australia has been successful in reducing spam originating in Australia, with several of the world’s top 200 global spammers who were formerly based here halting activities or leaving Australia following ACA warnings,” ACA Acting Chairman Dr Bob Horton said.

“And Australia has now come off the Sophos top ten list of spamming nations.  But with less than two per cent of spam received by Australians now coming from Australian sources, fighting spam also requires global cooperation.”

Dr Horton said that one former global spammer interviewed by ACA investigators confided that global spam operations are simply avoiding Australia to set up in less hostile jurisdictions.

“The London Action Plan is supported by government agencies from the UK, the US, 11 European nations, Korea, Japan, Canada, Mexico and Chile,” he said. “This reflects a strong anti-spam focus by nations of the developed world and represents over half of the OECD.  The plan also has nine signatories from the private sector.”

In Australia, the ACA and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) support the plan.  The ACA is responsible for enforcing Australia’s anti-spam law, while the ACCC has a particular interest in the scams that are promoted by spam.

The ACA and ACCC are already signatories to an existing trilateral Memorandum of Understanding with regulators in the US and UK.

The plan complements another joint initiative between the ACA and the Korea Information Security Agency.

“Under the Korean agreement the ACA will be working with agencies and organisations from many Asia-Pacific economies—both developed and developing—to fight spam,” Dr Horton said.

The Australian Communications Authority is a government regulator of telecommunications and radiocommunications