Spam

In Australia, spam is defined as 'unsolicited commercial electronic messaging' that offers or advertises the supply of goods or services, land, business or investment opportunities. Spam is a simple and low cost method to reach large numbers of consumers. Spammers often buy mail lists from people who have harvested addresses from web sites or news groups.

New Australian legislation relating to spam - the Spam Act 2003 - came into affect on 11 April 2004. The Australian Communications Authority (ACA) is responsible for enforcing the Spam Act 2003.

Under the Spam Act 2003 it is illegal to send, or cause to be sent, 'unsolicited commercial electronic messages' that have an Australian link. A message has an 'Australian link' if it either originates or was commissioned in Australia, or originates overseas but has been sent to an address accessed in Australia.

The Spam Act 2003 covers electronic messages - emails, mobile phone text messages (SMS), multimedia messaging (MMS) and instant messaging (iM) - of a commercial nature. However, the Act does not cover voice or fax telemarketing, 'pop-up' windows on the Internet, information posted on Internet pages or electronic messages without any commercial purpose that do not contain links or directions to a website or location having a commercial purpose.

The ACA's immediate focus is on spam of Australian origin. You can report this spam to the ACA by visiting the ACA website. The ACA's website also provides helpful information in relation to managing and preventing spam.

Protect yourself:

• Before you send e-mail to a web site, check for the site's privacy policy,
• You should be particularly suspicious if you can't identify the name of the person or company who has sent you the e-mail,
• Look out for sites offering prizes in return for your filling in surveys or forms or providing personal information. It may simply be a ruse to get you to provide your e-mail address and your interests for use by online marketers,
• Do not automatically assume that it is coming from where it seems to come from. There are various ways in which "spammers" can give false addresses, to make the source appear legitimate.
• Use an alias e-mail address (other than your personal address) if you post to newsgroups or bulletin boards,
• Avoid opening unsolicited e-mail. Spam can sometimes mean scam and the message may contain a virus that can damage your computer,
• Reconsider buying products from or replying to a company that spams - it only encourages them to continue spamming,
• Do not reply to or forward "chain-letter" e-mail,
• Consider buying filtering software to block spam and junk e-mail,
• Don't give out your e-mail address without checking the privacy policies of the trader,
• Don't provide personal information to surveys or forms unless you are confident your information will be protected,
• Always read the agreements placed upon sites, prior to proceeding to the next page,
• Confirm that all boxes on a website are "checked" or "unchecked" as you want them.
• Send a complaint to your Internet Service Provider - if enough people complain, the spammer will be refused access to the system. Some ISP's now offer filters to prevent spam being delivered to subscribers,
• Report the spam to the Australian Communications Authority as aforementioned.

Spews (Spam prevention early warning system)
provides a list of areas on the Internet which several system administrators, ISP postmasters, and other service providers have assembled and use to deny email and in some cases, all network traffic from. This private list is now available for the general public to read and/or use for email filtering.

Caube (Coalition against unsolicited bulk email)
is an all-volunteer grassroots organisation dedicated to eliminating spam from electronic mail boxes, with a focus on Australia's role in preventing spam.