I didn't believe my friend who said I was being charged for unsolicited e-mail, better known as spam. In the past three months, though, my cell phone bill has increased steadily from ¥6,810 to ¥10,311 to ¥13,999 as the volume of junk mail has soared. A Washington state friend informed me that he had been charged 10 cents for each spam, but after calling the phone company and explaining the situation, he is no longer billed for the unwelcome mail. That this appalling situation takes place and is allowed to continue defies logic.
TV commercials are paid for by sponsors, not viewers. The same should hold true for cell-phone users, who should be charged for their own e-mail and not that of others. I should think that electronic invasion of privacy would be as illegal as someone entering my house without my permission.
I receive from 20 to 50 spams daily, so my time is wasted deleting junk mail. That I should also pay for the come-ons is a transgression. If the phone company hit the guilty firms with a stiff phone bill every month instead of having customers shoulder the cost, junk mail would decrease or cease to be sent.
One of the ministries should look into this situation and rectify the wrong. Or, the phone company in its own self-interest should do what it should have done in the first place -- charge those who send e-mail, not those who receive it.
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