The endless barrage of spam e-mails clogging inboxes around the world is becoming increasingly dangerous, an international privacy conference heard Friday. A panel of experts discussing Internet crime before privacy commissioners and data protection advocates said the unwanted messages are more than simple nuisances.Authorities, meanwhile, look on with relative impotence.

Joel Winston of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said the pesky mass mailings are being used more and more for nefarious purposes. The messages increasingly aim to woo people into giving up valuable personal banking information. Others carry viruses and spyware. "It’s not just a nuisance anymore," he said. "It’s downright harmful." Dean Turner, a security director with Symantec Corp. Canada, said a recent survey estimated that 60% of all e-mail is spam. Other international experts peg the number as high as 90% on some days. edmontonsun.com - Canada - No easy solutions to dangerous spam