Q. I receive hundreds of spam emails every day of the week and I'm getting fed up. Many of them are offensive and I must spend at least 2 hours every week deleting them. Are they legal and what is the law and how can I stop them?
A. Spam emails are emails sent to you without consent. Whilst the content can cause embarrassment and distress, try not to be offended as the sender generally doesn't target recipients personally (as evidenced by the fact that the same spam email is usually sent to millions of people at the same time).
The Regulations say that organisations must only send marketing emails to individuals who have agreed to receive them, except where there is a clearly defined customer relationship. However, the regulator can only investigate complaints about marketing emails from identifiable UK senders and therefore it is difficult for them to deal with overseas spam.
If you receive marketing by email from an identifiable UK company that you don't want, you should first use the 'unsubscribe' link or email the organisation to ask them to stop (remembering to keep a copy of any correspondence). Tell the sender about the problem and allow them time to put things right. In many cases things can be resolved quickly but if not you should contact the Information Commissioners Office.
However, the law tends to be off the pace where the internet is concerned and the best way to minimize span is via practical steps such as the use of spam email filters and anti-virus software, choosing an email address which is difficult to guess and avoiding responding to spam emails and keeping your systems well maintained.
