Posted on: Monday, April 28, 2003

Anti-spam initiative slated

Advertiser News Services

Three of the nation's largest e-mail account providers, normally bitter rivals, today are to announce a joint assault on spam, vowing to collaboratively hunt down unsavory e-mailers and explore industry standards that would curtail the ability to create bulk electronic mailings.

Representatives of America Online, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. stressed that their initiative against unsolicited e-mail is a first step in what they hope will be a broader industry effort. The proposal lacked specific legislative or technical remedies.

The volume of spam has mushroomed in the past two years, now accounting for an estimated 40 percent of all e-mail traffic and $8 billion to $10 billion in costs to business a year.

"We're putting spammers on notice that the industry will collaborate to drive the bad guys out of business," Brian Arbogast, a Microsoft vice president in charge of its MSN network, said yesterday.