EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 78/515

(2004/C 78 E/0536)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3300/03

by Robert Sturdy (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(7 November 2003)

Subject: ‘Scam’ e-mails requesting bank details from Africa, etc.

Bearing in mind that there have been continuous reports of these e-mails, and my parliamentary account receives several every day, can the Commission tell me what it can do to try to stop these e-mails from reaching e-mail accounts within Europe, before more people get conned into handing over bank account details and being cheated out of large sums of money?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(18 December 2003)

The Honourable Member asks what the Commission can do to try to stop ‘scam’ e-mails requesting bank details, for example: from Africa.

‘Scam’ e-mails are also known as advance fee fraud e-mails, which are a specific form of unsolicited commercial e-mail or ‘spam.’ These are particularly misleading and fraudulent, making money at the expense of naïve e-mail users.

While the Commission cannot as such prevent users from passing on their bank details, it is taking measures to combat spam in general, and scams in particular. As regards spam, Directive 2002/58/EC (1) on privacy and electronic communications has banned unsolicited communications throughout the Union (except in limited circumstances). The deadline for transposing this Directive was the end of October 2003. The Commission refers also the Honourable Member to answers given on the issue of spam to written questions E-1997/03 by Mr Papayannakis (2), E-2085/03 by Mr Watson (3) and E-2254/03 by Mrs Kauppi (4).

Building on this new regime, the Commission will identify in a forthcoming Communication a series of additional actions that are needed to make it as effective as possible. Concrete action would focus not only on effective enforcement by Member States and technical solutions like filtering and security, but also on international cooperation and consumer awareness (5). The proposed measures have been discussed with Member States and interested parties at a workshop held in Brussels on 16 October 2003 (6).

Regarding awareness in particular, it is important that e-mail users be informed about the following: what is legal and illegal; the potential risks of being online or responding to such e-mails; what assistance they can receive from their e-mail service providers or third parties such as filtering software makers; and to whom they can report illegalities.

Regarding enforcement, prosecuting wrongdoers has to be a priority for Member States. International cooperation on prosecution is indeed taking place in a number of transnational cases. While online evidence is not always easy to gather, in particular when ‘spammers’ or ‘scammers’ operate off-shore, intermediaries will often be located much closer to places under the jurisdiction of Union public authorities.

For scam e-mails which originate within the Union, it should be borne in mind that they often amount to misleading advertising banned under Directive 84/450/EEC as amended by Directive 97/55/EC (7) on misleading and comparative advertisements which protects both business and consumers from being mislead. All Member States have transposed the Directive and it is therefore for the national courts and authorities to ensure that it is fully applied. The Commission's proposed directive on unfair commercial practices (8) will incorporate the protections against misleading advertising harming consumers' economic interests, including misleading scam e-mails aimed at consumers, which are currently contained in the Directive on misleading and comparative advertising.

(1) Directive 2002/58/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on privacy and electronic communications), OJ L 201, 31.7.2002.

(2) OJ C 51 E, 26.2.2004, p. 178.

(3) OJ C 51 E, 26.2.2004, p. 178.

(4) OJ C 51 E, 26.2.2004, p. 232.

(5) See IP/03/1015.

(6) See IP/03/1373.

(7) Directive 97/55/EC of Parliament and of the Council of 6 October 1997 amending Directive 84/450/EEC concerning misleading advertising so as to include comparative advertising, OJ L 290, 23.10.1997.

(8) COM(2003) 356 final.