LONDON--The public deluged the British agency designated to enforce new anti-spam legislation with complaints of dubious e-mail messages in the first 24 hours of the law"s existence, a spokeswoman said on Friday. "We"ve received a substantial number of inquiries," said the spokeswoman for the Information Commissioner"s Office (ICO). "It"s been everything: phone calls, e-mails, people forwarding on their spam." Despite the high volume of complaints, there are no prosecutions to announce, the agency said, delaying hopeful speculation that the new law would bring about swift justice to a daily aggravation for computer users.
The new law carries a 5,000 pound ($8,737) fine for offenders who send e-mail or text message solicitations to consumers without their consent. It also covers "cookies," or electronic identifying tags found on most Web sites. Companies that fail to inform the user of the identity of cookies also face fines. The new legislation does not protect the UK"s corporate computer users from spammers however. And, only spammers who reside in the European Union can be prosecuted.