In fact, anti-spam software companies reported at the beginning of June that it already accounts for the majority of e-mail.
Wyatt continued:
"Ultimately we will need a new global level organisation to 'hold' issues about the internet and APIG's evidence sessions will be an opportunity to explore this area as well as look for more immediate inter-government action and technical solutions."
The inquiry will focus on:
The developing legislative situation (UK, EU, US and elsewhere);
Technical methods that may prevent spam reaching users;
Social methods that may prevent problems with spam;
Future trends in spam; and
Spam's effect on other platforms (e.g. mobile phones and other devices)
Another fear is the use of spam as a carrier for programs known as Trojans that can install itself themselves on a computer without an owner's knowledge and use the computer for sending pornography and additional spam.
The Guardian newspaper spoke to spam filtering company MessageLabs, which confirmed that last week a virus was sent to around one million computers for the purpose of accessing those computers for distribution purposes. According to MessageLabs, it is the first time that hacking has been initiated by spam – or at least, the first time evidence of the illegal activity has been found.
MessageLabs senior anti-spam technologist, Matt Sergeant, told the Guardian:
"This is a massive discovery. It completely undermines the spammers' claim that they are legitimate marketers and shows that they are nasty insidious hijackers who drive me and the vast majority of computer users nuts."
Details of the spam inquiry are available from APIG's web site.
See: www.apig.org.uk