China signs global anti-spam accord

China committed to international efforts led by the UK and US to combat spam today. The country is thought to generate 20% of the world's spam, making it the second biggest source of unsolicited emails after the US.04 Jul 2005

The country is adopting the London Action Plan on Spam Enforcement Collaboration. The Plan calls for increased investigative training, the establishment of points of contact in each agency to respond quickly and effectively to enforcement inquiries, and the creation of an international working group on spam enforcement.

China's representative in the London Action Plan will be Union Network Beijing, a body mandated by the Chinese Government to enforce its recent anti-spam law and to combat the spread of computer viruses. 

The London Action Plan was launched after a conference on spam enforcement hosted jointly by the UK Office of Fair Trading and the US Federal Trade Commission in London in October 2004. It was the first international forum to focus exclusively on spam enforcement. 

It now comprises over 30 consumer protection, data protection, and telecommunications agencies and more than a dozen private sector representatives, spanning four continents. Its most recent campaign was operation Spam Zombies, part of a worldwide effort to prevent hijacking of computers by spammers without the users' knowledge.  Letters were sent by 20 members of the London Action Plan and 16 additional government agencies to more than 3,000 ISPs, encouraging them to take zombie-prevention measures.