With the news that in April 2004, 67.6% of the 840 million emails scanned
by MessageLabs were spam emails, Michael Fabricant, Shadow E-Technology
Minister has today urged the Government to act fast to prevent Britain
becoming the world leader for computer spamming.

Michael Fabricant commented: "Spam is deterring businesses and individuals
from using the internet. More worryingly, criminal gangs are taking
advantage of the Electronic Communications Directive, which became law in
December 2003, to make Britain one of the world’s fastest- growing sources
of spam.

"For the first time, Britain is among the top ten originators of spam, which
now accounts for about 18 billion daily e-mails around the world. Most
recent spam has originated in the United States, as well as China and South
Korea. But last month, for the first time, Britain overtook India to become
one of the ten main offenders.

"This growth in spam in Britain appears to be directly related to the new
law, which makes it a criminal offence, punishable by a fine, to send spam
to private e-mail addresses after the Information Commissioner has issued an
enforcement order. But after lobbying by the marketing industry, the
Department of Trade and Industry agreed that business e-mail addresses
should be exempted from the law. I believe that this legislation needs to be
looked at again if Britain isn’t to become a pariah nation amongst the
global e-community."