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This wiki contains information about the ISOC-ZA Spammer Bounty project.

please add one of these to your website
kind thanks to Frogfoot for these

Reward for Spammer Bounty Hunters!

  • R30,000 for a conviction in the High Court
  • R15,000 for a conviction in the Magistrates court
  • R7,500 for an admission of guilt fine

In order to qualify for the reward you must be a member of ISOC-ZA [*join here*], and provide evidence of the judicial process (i.e. you need to identify the spammer, report them to the police and follow up until the spammer is convicted).

We encourage your participation in developing this wiki.

Please keep reading to learn more how to become a spammer bounty hunter!

What is SPAM

In the context of South African law, spam is defined in the ECT Act of 2002 as: 45. (1) Any person who sends unsolicited commercial communications to consumers, must provide the consumer— (a) with the option to cancel his or her subscription to the mailing list of that person; and (b) with the identifying particulars of the source from which that person obtained the consumer’s personal information, on request of the consumer.

AND: 4) Any person who sends unsolicited commercial communications to a person who has advised the sender that such communications are unwelcome, is guilty of an offence and liable, on conviction, to the penalties prescribed in section 89(1).

See the full text of the ECT Act at [Internet.org.za]

How to catch a spammer

If you receive an unsolicited commercial message that you see is from South Africa (i.e. it uses a .za domain name and/or quotes local contact details or pricing) you should consider two things. Did the sender obtain your email address from a public place, and will the sender be able to unsubscribe you from any future mailings.

The best way to find out these two things is ask. They should be able to tell you where they obtained your email address, and immediately stop any further email. If they cannot complete both tasks then the message is spam. Have a look at a standard response message that you could send to a spammer.

Learn about how to identify the email headers. These will often tell you who the ISP is of the spammer, but are also essential in gathering evidence to include in the next step.

If you want maximum effect you should copy the ISP in your initial letters of response. Alternatively the response to your email as well as your ability to unsubscribe all weigh in the decision to determine your message/s it as spam.

You will need to print all the evidence and include it with your report to the police

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How to prosecute a spammer

1. Report the incidence to the police (make sure that you have all the details including the email headers and an explanation of how the spammer has broken the law and be ready to make a clear statement). Keep in mind that the police officer that will take your statement will most probably have little idea of these laws and what spam is (do not be put off by this).

2. Follow up and ensure that you obtain a case reference number (make sure that you get a contact number when you report the spammer) and a contact number for the detective assigned to the case.

3. Contact the detective and ensure that the commercial branch and Cyber crime specilists are involved

4. Continue communicating with the detectives to ensure the proscecution is completed


See more information about [How the Court System Works in South Africa] by Paralegal advice.

Keep following up

You will need to produce evidence of the outcome of the case in order to claim your bounty!

Goals of the project

-To provide knowledge about spam in South Africa (coming from SA's) to SA Internet users,

-To reduce spam by rewarding those that report spammers and hold them accountable for their actions.

Known spam in South Africa

Please add your own reports in known spam

Articles

ITWeb reports [Franchoa Giliomee was 'unaware' of the law] (Nov 2006)

IOL Technology - Rob Lever reports: [Spam is back as filters lose effectiveness] (Dec 2006)

Barracuda Networks: [Study finds 90 to 95 percent of all email in 2007 spam] (Dec 2007)

McAfee SiteAdvisor: [Mapping the Mal Web - shows insignificant numbers of spam from .za] (Mar 2007)

IOL - Jani Meyer reports: [Programme offers rewards to beat spam] (Sep 2008)

Google - Consistent increase in the amount and smartness of spam [2008 the year in spam] Jan 26, 2009

Contributors welcome

You should not have any expectation that this website is fully complete, or totally accurate. It is just the best information available at the time that you read it.

If you see something that's not right or incomplete, change it using the edit tab (up there at the top of the screen). Be sure to save your edited page!

Remember to create an account (login) by using the links on the top right, before editing.

Contact alan at isoc dot org dot za with any questions or comments

Logos on the right are there for you to use freely, thanks to Joe

Thanks to Alan Levin and all involved in establishing this project.

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This MediaWiki was successfully installed on 15 Oct 2006.