A leading financial consultant is warning firms to be on their guard against the rapid rise in junk e-mail.

Andrew Bartles said firms faced extra costs if they did not take action to rid themselves of the hundreds of junk e-mails they could receive each day.

Mr Bartles is financial consultant at Pudsey chartered accountants Broadhead Peel Rhodes.

He said: "A new trend is developing in line with the growth of electronic mail. Businesses across Yorkshire are receiving hundreds of junk e-mails that are increasing on-line costs and reducing productivity due to downloading time.

"E-mail junk is the most expensive junk mail because it costs to receive messages. Known as 'Spam', junk e-mails are sent out in quite a sophisticated way. When the application finds a site it can lead to an influx of over a hundred junk messages within a matter of days.

"At present there is no legislation in this country to prevent this from happening, however steps are being taken in America and there is a strong possibility that the UK may follow suit," he added.

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