The SpamMATTERS reporting button is a toolbar that loads into your email package which allows you to directly report unwanted email with a single click.

The SpamMatters button not only sends a copy of the offending email back to the ACMA, it deletes it in one click.

Submitting spam to ACMA helps them to forensically identify the culprits by providing timely and comprehensive information to authorities fighting spam-related crime such as phishing, Nigerian scams and mule scams, says the organisation.

Telstra has also made a version of the SpamMATTERS button automatically available to all its Telstra.com and BigPond WebMail customers from today and is providing a link on its website to the ACMA button for other email users.

Over time, customer usage of the SpamMATTERS button will also enable ACMA to assist internet service providers in securing their networks from spam threats. ACMA will be contacting other Australian internet service providers to seek their assistance in similarly promoting the SpamMATTERS button to as many Australian email users as possible.

Pacific Internet has already assisted the ACMA with a 12 month trial with its own customers.

Built by a privately owned Australian company the SpamMATTERS toolbar button was commissioned by ACMA as part of its anti-spam activities.

The button only works with Windows PCs running Outlook or Outlook Express, but other users can still take part in the scheme by reporting spam directly to the ACMA website.

From the commencement of the Spam Act on 10 April 2004 until 31 March 2006, ACMA has undertaken a level of complaint and enforcement action under the Act that indicates considerable activity occurring in this regulatory area.

ACMA has:

• received 4274 formal complaintsreceived over 880,000 reports of spam during the trial of the SpamMATTERS reporting system
• received approximately 300,000 reports of spam through ACMA’s ’Reporting Spam’ email address
• responded to more than 2,700 verbal and written enquiries submitted by businesses and consumers
• written to around 600 companies advising them of their obligations under the Act
  
• issued formal warning letters to 10 companies or individuals
  
• entered into enforceable undertakings with five companies and individuals
  
• issued 13 fines collectively to five companies/individuals; and
  
• successfully prosecuted a company and its managing director in the Federal Court in Perth.

The ACMA SpamMATTERS button can be downloaded directly from the ACMA website (www.spam.acma.gov.au ).

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