Sir Spam-a-Lot is not welcome by the British authorities, by Uncle Sam, or by many others throughout the world.  In the UK, the Office of Fair Trade (OFT) has re-issued its advisory concerning its efforts to fight spam. The UK effort, called the London Action Plan, was originally announced last year. Co-developed with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, it was agreed to by bodies from a total of 15 countries. According tot he OFT, its aims include:

• encouraging communication and coordination between agencies to achieve efficient and effective enforcement
• regular conference calls to discuss: cases, legislative developments, investigative techniques, ways to address obstacles to enforcement, consumer and business education projects
• encouraging dialogue between government agencies and private sector representatives to promote ways to support government agencies in bringing spam cases and pursue their own initiatives to fight spam

The OFT also notes a number of commitments from businesses, including:

• establishing a designated contact within an organisation to facilitate responses and requests for enforcement related assistance from spam enforcement agencies
• work with other private sector representatives to establish a resource list of individuals within particular sectors working on spam enforcement
• participation in conference calls to assist law enforcement agencies in bringing spam cases and provide information on cases, new technology, trends in internet and spam and general data on spam as an early warning mechanism for government agencies
• assisting in training for government agencies to help their investigations and to bring spam cases
• assisting government agencies in understanding the best ways to request information from them.

Spam not only constitutes the majority of all e-mail sent worldwide, it is also often tied to fraudelent and deceptive (ie, criminal) activity. Christine Wade, Director of Consumer Regulation Enforcement at the OFT and ICPEN president, has noted that  "spam gets in the way of legitimate e-commerce and is often a vehicle for scams. International collaboration by enforcement agencies, the efforts of the computer and communications industries, and smart consumers at home – who take steps to protect themselves – are all needed to combat the internet scammers.'

Governmental organizations uniting behind the LAP include: the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Commerce, Department of Homeland Security in the US; and agencies from Albania, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan.