ISPs agree on measures to put spammers out of business

Internet service providers (ISPs) have waged war on spam by agreeing to shut down web sites used by spammers.

Some 150 ISPs belonging to the London Internet Exchange (Linx), which handles 90 per cent of the UK?s internet traffic, have agreed on a series of measures intended to remove the financial incentive from sending spam, and to make it harder to send junk emails.

Linx is calling on international counterparts and the UK government to join its campaign.

?This represents an ever tougher approach to spammers,? said Linx regulation officer Malcolm Hutty. ?ISPs are not just trying to avoid their own users sending spam, we want to put spam out of business altogether.

Under the new Linx codes of best current practice (BCP), ISPs will target spammers who host web sites with a reputable ISP, while sending spam from another network, or when a third party is used to send the spam.

Hutty says this latest measure will, ?raise the baseline making the worldwide acceptable minimum standard tougher?.

?ISPs have taken action under the BCP to withdraw email services or even internet access for spammers,? he said. ?In fact, ISPs have also applied this sanction against each other if they knowingly fail to take action to prevent spamming by their customers.?

Linx is also calling on its members to take down web sites that sell spamming tools.

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