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

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 [[1]], 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

How to proscecute a spammer

Report the incidence to the police Follow up and ensure that you obtain a case reference number Contact the detective and ensure that the commercial branch and Cyber crime specilists are involved

Keep folllowing 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

IOL reports [Franchoa Giliomee] was 'unaware' of the law

Rob Lever reports: [Spam is back as filters lose effectiveness]

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.

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This MediaWiki was successfully installed on 15 Oct 2006.