A STROUD mum has reacted in horror to a flurry of sick e-mails that have been sent to her computer.

Dotty Cooper, of Stroud's Stratford Road, has received shocking e-mails which give a string of Russian website addresses for child pornography, credit card fraud, computer viruses, hacking and tips for ripping off banks.

It then lists which credit cards the sites are prepared to accept for their services. "It's disgusting," she told the SNJ. " And it's very upsetting."

It is the second time Mrs Cooper has received such e-mails but she said the police have refused to do anything about it. "Last time I took it to the police and was told they didn't deal with it in Stroud," she said.

Police spokesman Zoe Young said she could understand Mrs Cooper's distress and that there were several things people could do if they received unsolicited and offensive e-mails.

"It is very difficult for a county force to deal with if the offenders are using international websites," she said.

"We would advice that people receiving these kind of e-mails contact the Internet Watch Federation.

"It is a internet service provider-based organisation so it can close down offending websites if its investigations warrant that and create evidence packets if the site is set up inside the UK which are passed on to the police to allow us to prosecute. "It has a website at www.is.org

"We would also advise people not to respond to these e-mails as that just confirms you're receiving them and you'll then be bombarded with spam. "We would also recommend people delete these e-mails as they may carry viruses."

She said the Government had also set up its own anti-spam champion and more information can be found on the website www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk