Spam in China

China is now considering legal action to help at blocking spam email. The new law is supposed to take effect sometime in the next several weeks. The anti-spam group Spamhaus claims that China is home to over 600 different spam gangs.

Thus far, there is little further information on what the law might entail. Most other countries considering action on spam are democracies. In contrast China is one of the few remaining communist states. Presumably legislation would pass through a much different process.

Last year the United States enacted the CAN-SPAM act. The effects to date have not been impressive. Most samples indicate little to no change in the amount of spam. Some surveys even suggest that the problem has continued to grow.

As a region Asia seems to host more spammers than other areas. Some e-mail blocker blacklists stop most email originating there. The Netherlands seem to have similar problems.

Interestingly, internet access is China is somewhat limited. The government should be able to take fairly direct technical action against those attempting to send spam through it's proxy servers. China has a track record of harsh punishment for those who violate its laws.

SpamButcher provides solutions for individuals and spam filtering for business.

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