Telecoms reform tabled as EU plots spam clampdown

The European Commission is calling on tougher action to fight spammers and protect online privacy. A Commission-funded study found that enforcement action against junk mailers across the EU is inconsistent. It wants to see spam laws tightened up, alongside "clearer and more consistent enforcement rules", funds to support …

[john loader]

What about spam phone calls?

Not the ones the TPS can stop but those International ones selling shares or telling you you've won a cruise or worse the silent ones. I find answering them in German or French is fun. But this is a spin off of VoIP hwere it is impossible to stop the perpetrators who are now causing real grief to vulnerable people. Come on EU talk to the US and Indian governments and get a clamp down on them as most calls seem to originate from those places

[Cameron 2]

empty hats

Spam will keep getting worse until the businesses that support it through gross negligence are made to pay. As far as I can tell, there's *nobody home* at [e-mail], [e-mail], or abuse@any telecom in Turkey. People act as if spam falls mysteriously from the sky. Ridiculous. Spam persists because transnationals starting with Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft *support* it.

[rob hindle]

spam phone calls

@john loader: "Not the ones the TPS can stop" - just which are those?

I've been registered with TPS for years and I still get calls from "reputable" UK companies including what I believe is a BT subsidiary. And Npower last week. TPS complaints are handled by a marketing industry body. I got info using the FOI act from the Information Commissioner. Nobody has ever been fined (penalty is up to £5000 per offending call made). Persistent offenders just get a "please stop calling TPS numbers" letter.

Businesses are more important to Government than individuals, they generate more tax revenue and party donations.

I think our best chance is if there were a 'phone company who offered a spam call blocking service with a blacklist of "bad" numbers. Even blocking "number withheld" calls has stopped working, the callers are currently using numbers consisting of all zeros and I'm sure they'll be working on how to "fake" the caller ID - possibly selecting the numbers to use from the TPS list.