I am writing to you to lodge an official complaint against PCCW and its subsidiary, Netvigator. This organisation is promoting the transmission of spam by its customers. I have regularly received spam mail from one specific Netvigator customer. I have reported this spam mail to abuse@netvigator.com on several occasions, requesting that the terms and conditions of service issued by PCCW be upheld with the immediate termination of the offending account. PCCW has completely ignored my reports and requests, and it has not upheld its own terms and conditions. I continue to receive the same spam mail from the same user of Netvigator and PCCW has done absolutely nothing to prevent this spam transmission. PCCW is a member of the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association (HKISPA) and even has a representative on the executive committee. PCCW clearly demonstrates the worthlessness of the association's declared mission of establishing and maintaining a code of practice for ISP members to follow when dealing with spam. The HKISPA has a stated code of practice for ISP members to follow when dealing with spam. PCCW is abusing this code of practice and should therefore not be eligible for membership. The reputations and business ethics of the members that are upholding, enforcing and applying the code of practice have also been significantly compromised. Due to the irresponsible attitude of PCCW, they are being exposed to potentially damaging characterisations through their membership of the HKISPA. PCCW should be immediately removed from the ISP member list for breaching the code of practice, and all representatives of that company should be expelled from the association. Only then will the HKISPA have restored its integrity. John Ward Hong Kong Andy Lake of the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association writes: With regard to your rather harsh comments regarding the HKISPA, I would like to inform you that much is being done by this (voluntary and self-funded) organisation regarding spam. The code of practice was just a start and an attempt at self-regulation by the industry and a check earlier this year revealed that the code of practice was adhered to well. If we find a member is not adhering, our first step is to work with them to address the situation. We have done this successfully on several occasions. We believe expelling them from the organisation would serve little useful purpose to the internet users of Hong Kong. It would certainly then be more difficult for persons such as you to vent their frustrations and have the situation dealt with in a co-ordinated and professional manner. Spam is actually a major problem for internet service providers and they want to eliminate it as much as customers such as yourself. More than 50 per cent of e-mail is spam and ISPs such as Netvigator spend a lot of resources carrying unwanted traffic and time and money trying to stop it. Andy Lake Secretary HKISPA PCCW responds: Like many internet users, we are concerned about the escalating amount of spam on the internet. We suspended this service after an investigation. The sender has since apologised and promised not to engage in such activity again. PCCW Corporate Communications
