WebAfrica Clearly Supports Spam

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mitchmagi

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Web Africa supports spam !

According to Web Africa's Acceptable Use Policy:

"Sending unsolicited mail messages, including, without limitation, commercial advertising and informational announcements, is expressly prohibited...

14.2. To send unsolicited mass e-mailings, if such unsolicited e-mailings provoke complaints from the recipients"

On the 12th April 2012 - I reported that their client

"Romeo Gumede <[email protected]> Romeo Gumede Training Coordinator, Innovative Ideas Training Academy
Tel: +27 (11) 524 0124 / 011 027 2529 | Fax: 086 652 9449 Cell: +27 72 502 2761 [email protected] [email protected] www.nerdie-tech.com"

was violating their terms of service and sending out spam.

I would have hoped that WebAfrica took the misuse of their network seriously. This is NOT the case. WebAfrica clearly condones the practice of spam on their network - as the unsolicited junk mail continues to be permitted using their mailfire.co.za service ... and more spam is being sent from their servers by the same client.

Perhaps WebAfrica would like to advise exactly what they intend to do about the blatant breach of their Acceptable Use Policy ( this would now be the second notification of abuse ) ... or are these policies merely just for show ... and that WebAfrica is happy to continue to support spammers ?
 
What does this have to do with Web Africa?
iita.co.za is hosted by Serve-Hosting (abroad)
nerdie-tech.com is hosted abroad.
 
See the original post ... "as the unsolicited junk mail continues to be permitted using their mailfire.co.za service"

WebAfrica offer a bulk mailing service. But clearly do not audit that the email lists used are verified opt-in
 
Ah, I see. Missed that line, sorry.
From what I understand it would fall under MailFire's purpose - mass email marketing. Yes, I agree that it's more popularly known as spam, but the client is paying WebAfrica to allow them to send it via their servers.

Have you submitted a support ticket to them on the matter? Or at least since you say "this will be the second time", a reply from them?
 
Another support ticket has been logged.

The MailFire service can ONLY be used for permission based marketing. WebAfrica's terms and conditions of service and acceptable use policy SPECIFICALLY prohibit spamming - which they define themselves as unsolicited commercial email.

The fact that no action was taken the first time they were notified that their "client" was breaching their AUP speaks volumes.

If WebAfrica were serious about not supporting spam - the account in question would have been suspended immediately as is the case with the overseas operators such as ConstantContact / MailChimp who have VERY strict policies to ensure that their service is used for legitimate permission based emailing.

A little investigation by WebAfrica would have revealed that the spammer was unable to provide any form of confirmation of opt-in status - and thus the lists were harvested / purchased.

Pehaps a little public scrutiny will force WebAfrica to take such complaints more seriously ... rather than openly facilitating spam ( whilst pretending to be serious in their fight against junk mail )
 
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Audit is very easy ... you get a complaint - then ask the "sender" to provide proof of opt-in status. Unable to do so. Terminate the account. If the overseas operators are serious about keeping legitimate bulk mailings on the straight and narrow - then no reason why WebAfrica shouldn't do the same.
 
Hi there,

I see you've also posted on our Facebook wall, just replied there now.
We do take spam extremely seriously and will follow our internal process with following up with the sender of this mail.

As per the AUP you posted here, we'll follow up with the sender and request his opt-in information. We also follow SpamHAUS rules very closely. http://www.spamhaus.org/whitepapers/mailinglists/

Looking at the above, Mailfire always embeds an unsubscribe button. Once this is done, you won't receive any further mails from the list subscribed to. We can also manage this from our side by removing you from the mailing lists that you've been subscribed too - from your tickets, I can't seem to find a request like this.

Please note that we'll take this further and we'll have you removed from the mailing lists.
 
HI Jeff

Simply unsubscribing doesn't unfortunately solve the root cause of the problem ... that you are knowingly allowing unsolicited junk mail through your network.

I have multiple email addresses - and unsubscribed on my first ticket. Following the abuse report, it does not appear that an audit was conducted on this client's list harvesting practices - as the spam continued on one of my other addresses.

Until such time as this particular user can prove the opt-in status of his lists - WebAfrica should be suspending the account.
That would show you are in fact serious about preventing abuse on your network rather than just paying lip service to the concept ( or telling the recipients of spam to simply just unsubscribe )

At which stage is a user actually prevented from using your MailFire service ? Are they given x number of warnings or is it an immediate suspension ? The AUP makes it very clear that spamming is not permitted.


WAJeff said:
Hi there,

I see you've also posted on our Facebook wall, just replied there now.
We do take spam extremely seriously and will follow our internal process with following up with the sender of this mail.

As per the AUP you posted here, we'll follow up with the sender and request his opt-in information. We also follow SpamHAUS rules very closely. http://www.spamhaus.org/whitepapers/mailinglists/

Looking at the above, Mailfire always embeds an unsubscribe button. Once this is done, you won't receive any further mails from the list subscribed to. We can also manage this from our side by removing you from the mailing lists that you've been subscribed too - from your tickets, I can't seem to find a request like this.

Please note that we'll take this further and we'll have you removed from the mailing lists.
Click to expand...
 
mitchmagi said:
HI Jeff

Simply unsubscribing doesn't unfortunately solve the root cause of the problem ... that you are knowingly allowing unsolicited junk mail through your network.
Click to expand...

No, we aren't allowing spam through our network. We're providing a mass-emailing platforms for anyone to use that follow strict guidelines. If we where in fact allowing spam through, we'd allow mailers to be sent without a user management option - as I mentioned above, not the case. We have unsubscribe features and follow internal processes to stop spam. Since you've received a mail that you haven't opted-in for, we'll remove you from the list. Simple.

mitchmagi said:
I have multiple email addresses - and unsubscribed on my first ticket. Following the abuse report, it does not appear that an audit was conducted on this client's list harvesting practices - as the spam continued on one of my other addresses.
Click to expand...

Did you only request that your one email address be removed? Mailfire uses CSV import lists, where the email addresses and other information is stored. Sounds like more than one of your email addy's have been subscribed to.

mitchmagi said:
Until such time as this particular user can prove the opt-in status of his lists - WebAfrica should be suspending the account.
That would show you are in fact serious about preventing abuse on your network rather than just paying lip service to the concept ( or telling the recipients of spam to simply just unsubscribe )

At which stage is a user actually prevented from using your MailFire service ? Are they given x number of warnings or is it an immediate suspension ? The AUP makes it very clear that spamming is not permitted.
Click to expand...

Again, I've escalated this onto our Abuse Team to investigate and track down where your email address has been added and opt-in confirmation has been received. We work off a warning system, so immediate suspension of a Mailfire account won't happen after one warning.
We've got your tickets and are busy looking at the Mailfire system - we'll revert with feedback as soon as it becomes available.

Give this thread a read through on our forums where our COO and CEO at the time addresses similar concerns. http://forums.webafrica.co.za/showt...arketing-Launched!?p=8306&viewfull=1#post8306
 
Hi Jeff

I look forward to the feedback.

"We're providing a mass-emailing platforms for anyone to use that follow strict guidelines."

These guidelines are not being followed

"If we where in fact allowing spam through, we'd allow mailers to be sent without a user management option"

A user management option has nothing to do with the definition of spam. The fact that I can unsubscribe one of my harvested email addresses has ZERO bearing on whether the mail is spam or not.

See below

http://kb.webafrica.co.za/article/AA-00738/0/What-Does-Web-Africa-Consider-to-be-Spam-Abuse.html

By WebAfrica's own definition the mail being sent to me is spam. No consent was obtained. No prior relationship exists with the sender.

As such - spam very much IS being sent through WebAfrica's network using your MailFire service. Simple.

The sooner that is acknowledged, the better.
 
How are the guidelines not being followed? This is exactly my point in the argument. We allow a product to be purchased, should any of these be abused - including Hosting, ADSL and Mailfire here, then we take further action on things.

So yes, you may have received spam from one of our products - however it definitely doesn't mean that we're allowing and and just fine with it. I think our efforts here reflect exactly that, along with our escalations and resolution which will happen. As I said above, different if Web Africa is sending you spam. Web Africa is providing a service and product available to anyone, which in this case, is being abused. So no, we aren't sending spam, we take spam very seriously on our part and we're here to help and sort out both your opt-in issues as well as talking to the customer responsible for sending you the mail.
 
I look forward to hearing the outcome of events now from your Abuse team seeing that my initial reporting of their violation of your AUP did not result in any meaningful compliance check. Perhaps the second report of continued spam will result in the necessary action.
 
Justin and Mohammed will be taking this further for you. I believe that if opt-in information isn't provided by Mailfire customers when requested, within 48 hours the account is suspended.

Mohammed will call you to explain this further.
 
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