Australia claims success with anti-spam law

Even with this small measure of success, however, there's little doubt that Australian email users continue to receive spam from around the world -- and lots of it.

• Acting ACA chairman Dr Bob Horton said that the thwarted spammers had reacted to an ACA warning in late March that the Act was due to come into force in April and that they would need to comply with it.
• "At the end of the first three months of the Spam Act it appears that these particular major players have stopped operating in Australia because complaints about them stopped when the Act came in on 10 April."
• "As recently as last week, Spamhaus reported that there has been little or no activity by these particular major Australian-based spammers of offensive material since they were warned by the ACA about the new law," he said.
• Since the Act came into force, Horton said the ACA has received about 30,000 reports of spam, including more than 300 formal complaints.
• "As a result of these complaints the ACA has contacted more than 100 businesses advising them to improve their email and SMS marketing practices to comply with the Act," he said.
• Clearly many businesses still need to test and fix their unsubscribe feature."
• Although most businesses have reported changes to their practices to ensure that they complied with the new law, the ACA is investigating "several cases where the response to our warnings and advice has been unsatisfactory," said Horton.
• The key to improvement in the Australian user experience depends on all nations taking similar action to counter spam," said Horton.
• Last week Horton chaired a meeting of nations and private sector representatives at the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva to discuss cooperation in countering spam.
• ZDNet Australia's Lisa Simmons reported from Sydney.
• For more coverage from ZDNet Australia, click here.