The government has been urged to take action on the problem of email and mobile phone spam.
Price comparison service uSwitch.com said that ISPs and mobile operators need to take a much tougher line on unsolicited emails and texts and called on the government to spur them into action.
"We urge the Government to introduce stronger rules to govern spam, and to put pressure on mobile networks and internet providers to work harder to stop the problem," said uSwitch.com's Steve Weller.
The call comes on the back of research that around 82 million spam emails are received in the UK every day. However, it is very difficult to put a stop to the gangs creating it, as they often operate outside of the EU's jurisdiction.
"80 per cent of spam comes from 'spam gangs' operating outside of the EU and so are out of range of European law. Unfortunately, that means the onus is on the UK consumer to take action to protect themselves," said Weller.
However, as many as 1.4 million surfers in the UK are not using spam filters, according to uSwitch.com, and mobile phones are largely unprotected too.
"The problem is no longer isolated to computer users. Our research shows 16.6 million mobile customers are now troubled by spam text messages too," said Weller.
www.uswitch.com
Topic: Government must act to stop spam (Read 792 times)