The three companies plan to reduce the ability of spammers to use their services to send the unwanted emails through AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft mail by eliminating the ability to create fake email accounts in bulk and improving the exchange of consumer complaints and feedback between email providers. There are also plans to define best practice for anti-spam email accounts.
Spam is fast becoming one of the leading issues to be addressed by internet companies. America Online announced this month that it was taking several spammers to court in a $10m (拢6.27m) legal action, and Microsoft and Yahoo! have also used legal means to prevent spammers.
Dan Rosensweig, chief operating officer for Yahoo!, said: "Fighting spam is a priority for Yahoo! because we are committed to delivering to our users the highest quality products and services."
He added: "Industry collaboration with AOL, Microsoft and other key stakeholders to collectively address this problem is an important step in helping protect people from spam and to enhance their online experience."
The three companies will form a group, along with other stakeholders, to look at how the level of spam can be reduced and how spammers can be stopped from using deceptive techniques in email headers to get through spam-blocking systems.
Last week, a US industry body of email marketers announced it was creating a body to look at best practice within the legitimate email marketing industry.
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