A NEW European law that makes sending unsolicited e-mails a criminal offence will have little effect on the amount being sent, according to a North-East expert.

Dr Lindsay Marshall, of Newcastle University's school of computing science, warned yesterday that people may stop using e-mail unless even tougher measures are taken to curb the spiralling amount of unsolicited mail, known as spam.

He said: "The problem is that almost all spam originates from outside Europe, particularly the US, but this law only applies to the European Union.

"The law is the right idea, in principle, but to be honest, it will have no noticeable effect.

"If spam continues to increase, we may stop using e-mail in the same way that we would stop answering a phone that rang continuously."

Dr Marshall, who arrived home from a two-week holiday this year to find 3,000 e-mails in his mailbox, said: "Even if the Americans introduced a similar law, the spamming industry there would move to another country."

Dr Marshall said a series of measures to tackle the problem should include putting pressure on all countries to adopt tough anti-spam laws, education programmes for e-mail users and the wider application of spam filters.

He said: "The problem is that it is very cheap to send a million spam messages and you only need a tiny number of responses to make a profit."

The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations Act 2003, which is in force tomorrow, makes it illegal to send unsolicited e-mails.

Companies must get permission from an individual before they can send them an e-mail or text message. The regulations do not cover business addresses.