As junk email is hitting record levels across the world, a new anti-spam project has been launched at the United Nations Internet Governance Forum held in Athens on Tuesday. The StopSpamAlliance information website was set up by six international organizations based in all parts of the globe including APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), the EU Contact Network of Spam-Enforcement Authorities, the International Telecommunication Union, the London Action Plan, OECD and the Seoul-Melbourne Anti-Spam Group. The move comes as a response to the recommendation adopted at the World Summit on Information Society held in 2005 in Tunis.

The task faced by all of these groups is monumental. Recent reports claim that spam levels have increased significantly over the past months. For instance, Ireland’s IE Internet said the amount of spam seen by Irish users in their inboxes in the month of October was a new record. Overall, 57.26% of emails circulating in the country were deemed as spam. Other reports from the UK are even more alarming: records were also set here, and the overall spam ratio in October was set at 89.07%. However, during some days in October spam constituted almost all of email traffic, as during weekends levels of 96% were reached. Another study also claimed record spam levels in the month of September, with 77.4% of email traffic flagged as such. An overall 40% rise in email traffic between July and September was registered, mainly due to an increase in junk mailings.

However, the problem not only lies with the sheer numbers: as spammers seek to continue their lucrative trade, new methods are emerging to fool users and spam filters alike. Recently released statistics show that image-based spam is on the increase, as cybercriminals seek to circumvent anti-spam protection systems. Another new method employed by spammers is to use Internet domains from remote countries in order to bypass anti-spam databases. All this means a more urgent approach with backing from governments and business alike is needed to tackle the problem and the StopSpamAlliance is a new step in that direction.