Consumer groups fight spam epidemic

A coalition of consumer groups plans to ask the federal government to rescue people from the deluge of unwanted commercial mail that clogs their inboxes and sucks up their time.

The Telecommunications and Research Action Center, the National Consumers League, and Consumer Action on Wednesday will ask the Federal Trade Commission to implement new rules designed to alleviate the spam problem.

The groups also will unveil a new tool for people who want to tell their spam horror stories to the FTC.

The commission already has set up a database to accept spam complaints and receives more than 10,000 submissions a day. In February, the FTC unveiled a program to crack down on spammers.

However, as most people know, spam continues to be a huge problem for individuals--who waste time wading through an inbox full of unwanted mail--and businesses--whose networks are overwhelmed by the messages.