Hong Kong to set up “Do Not Call Register”

This morning I received a four page fax touting a number of books I wouldn’t buy if they were in the ten cent bin at a bookstore. Every day, I get 2 or 3 phone calls in Cantonese that are pre-recorded. From time to time I get SMS messages in Chinese obviously selling something but I can’t even read them.

The government has introduced a bill that will empower the Telecommunications Authority to set up a do not call registry for everything but e-mail addresses, fearing an e-mail registry would be used outside Hong Kong and would increase spam, not decrease it. Hong Kong marketing e-mailers will must include name, address and e-mail address and not use misleading headers.

I am delighted and only wish we didn’t have to wait 60 days for public consultation and whatever time it takes to push the law through. I’m sick and tired of being awakened from my afternoon naps by unwanted marketing calls. I’m sick and tired of replacing paper and fax cartridges because of unwanted marketing faxes. I’m sick and tired of accessing my SMS messages to find a sales pitch.

I wish somebody could do something about e-mail. I get approximately 3-400 spams a day on my Yahoo account which I use for any communication I think could result in more spam. At first I dutifully filled out the form the U.S. requires each spammer to include. The only result was an increase in spam from other senders. I don’t believe Hong Kong will be able to do any better. I use two spam filters on my personal ISP and two or three spams manage to sneak through every day. Before Christmas, it was even worse.

Talk about, “Killing the goose that laid the golden egg?” Unless spammers stop, they may choke the entire internet to a halt.