Unsolicited Internet messages account for more than half of all e-mails received in China, an international "spam" expert said on Monday, urging the Chinese government to take forceful action against junk mail.
Experts say businesses and governments around the world will spend $41 billion this year to defend their computer systems against electronic spam, named for a brand of processed luncheon meat made from ground pork and ham.
"Half of the e-mails in your inbox could be messages you never wanted to see," Jean-Jacques Sahel, director of international communications at Britain's Department of Trade and Industry, told a technology seminar in the Chinese capital.
"China's forthcoming spam law is a welcome development which I understand is close to being finalised," he said.
Spam is expected to account for about 67 percent of all e-mails worldwide this year, up several-fold from eight percent in 2001, Sahel said, citing figures from the United Nations.
Reading and deleting junk e-mail costs British firms $816.90 per worker per year in lost productivity, he said.
China is the world's third-largest spam producing country, after the United States and South Korea, accounting for 11.62 percent of all unwanted messages, software firm Sophos says.
Some experts blame China, which cracks down on political dissent and pornography on the Internet, for being a haven for "spammers" due to neglect. Last year, the government blocked dozens of computer servers believed to be sending spam.
Western governments are pondering laws to enable crackdowns on Internet service providers, or ISPs, who allow spammers to use their systems.
