SA gets tough on spammers

About time! Nevermind the email spam (which is irritating in itself), but I'm sick of receiving sms spam about weekend parties and other crap!
 
Can those random phone calls and snail mails you get from banks et al to offer you another credit card not be classed as spam?
 
groundnut said:
Can those random phone calls and snail mails you get from banks et al to offer you another credit card not be classed as spam?
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Well I'm guessing that since the bill states that email addresses and cellphone numbers are deemed personal information, random phone calls offering you products and services without you giving out your number to them would be illegal as well :) Goodbye telemarketers!

Doesn't say anything about postal addresses though, so I'm not sure about snail mail.
 
With all due respect I loath spam but we live in a lawless country where you can chat on a cellphone whilst driving, shoot the red traffic light all day every day, have your car stolen and nobody cares - particularly the police, mug someone at gunpoint and all the cops will do is "open a case" which gets filed who knows where....and spammers will faint with fear at these future, maybe, imminent laws...rigggghhhht!:sick:
 
now if they can do that so quickly why cant they sort out the cost of bandwidth??
 
So if you have a legal mailing list of customers that have requested to join are you supposed to keep a copy of each mailing list request? What are the rules and procedures?
 
?

How much local spam do you really receive. All of my spam is from international spammers anyway, where there are even harsher laws and better controls on spam. It's never has seemed to stop them.

Who is going to define spam? Who is going to track and enforce this? I mean is a sports newsletter spam, am I going to have to send a written letter to my favorite sports site asking them to send me a newsletter? That's they way the law is written.

This just sounds like another draconian law that could potentially be a hurdle in doing business.
 
IIRC, E-Mail counts as a written letter, so an email opt-in would be enough to subscribe to any form of news that you actually want. If it was asked for, it is no longer 'spam' since it is no longer unsolicited.

The trick might come in where they add in a small line in the rules+regulations of all kinds of arb documents which agrees to allow them to 'share' your details with related companies, probably in order to serve you better. Or in other words, get more money from you :p
 
lenosb said:
With all due respect I loath spam but we live in a lawless country where you can chat on a cellphone whilst driving, shoot the red traffic light all day every day, have your car stolen and nobody cares - particularly the police, mug someone at gunpoint and all the cops will do is "open a case" which gets filed who knows where....and spammers will faint with fear at these future, maybe, imminent laws...rigggghhhht!:sick:
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kolakidd said:
How much local spam do you really receive. All of my spam is from international spammers anyway, where there are even harsher laws and better controls on spam. It's never has seemed to stop them.

Who is going to define spam? Who is going to track and enforce this? I mean is a sports newsletter spam, am I going to have to send a written letter to my favorite sports site asking them to send me a newsletter? That's they way the law is written.

This just sounds like another draconian law that could potentially be a hurdle in doing business.
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Good points
 
O - yes, email spam is but a drop in the ocean of spam heading my way. I really don't flinch when hitting delete to slap away a few bits. Most likely already lying nicely grouped in my junk folder.

What DOES irk me is recieving a call saying "Please hold for this important call". I am not a f-ing bank account waiting for something to spend my money on.

SMS spam is less intrusive than that, but hell it is also a pain. As mentioned, I've recieved hundreds of spam messages to go to places I've never even heard of. Hell if I ever do find out where this place is, I'm now even less likely to visit.

Getting rid of email spam is a little harder, often because of the way email works. SMS's and telemarketing requires quite a bit of cash to spam, and are more easily policed.

At least it's a step in a relatively right direction, but like I said, I'd wait for the actual bill before saying yay-or-nay.
 
Very nice in theory, but how are they going to police this? A spammer can get up to 10 years in jail, while rape, murder and robbery you get away scot free, or with minimal sentences. Maybe this will convince the spammers to lead a better life....become robbers! :)
 
Not quite the same, is it?

45(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).
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That's what makes them stop after you've complained. You still need to complain first though, and it doesn't keep your information away from them. In telemarketing, they only *really* need to call you once, so this has no effect.

89(1) A person convicted of an offence referred to in sections 37(3), 40(2), 58(2), 80(5), 82(2) or 86(1), (2) or (3) is liable to a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 12 months.
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Funny that this doesn't mention 45(4), but anyway - that's 1 year max.
 
all good ideas but like the main sez how you going to enforce it?
 
Tns said:
all good ideas but like the main sez how you going to enforce it?
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"......Failure to comply with a order from the commission to stop sending spam would be a criminal offence punishable by a fine or up to 10 years in prison, according to the bill, which will go before the justice minister after the Law Commission......"

The is the same nonsense we had with the PAIA where Leon Wessels wanted to have everybody prosecuted which was stopped by Vusi Pikoli who refused to take instructions from oubaas Wessels. Our constitution protects us against such terror. Only the http://www.npa.gov.za has the power to decide to prosecute, which protects us against exactly this tyranical anti-spam law. The danger with the law is it could be used to squash free speech. These issues are addressed at length here: http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/LegalPerspective
 
captainwifi said:
"......Failure to comply with a order from the commission to stop sending spam would be a criminal offence punishable by a fine or up to 10 years in prison, according to the bill, which will go before the justice minister after the Law Commission......"

The is the same nonsense we had with the PAIA where Leon Wessels wanted to have everybody prosecuted which was stopped by Vusi Pikoli who refused to take instructions from oubaas Wessels. Our constitution protects us against such terror. Only the http://www.npa.gov.za has the power to decide to prosecute, which protects us against exactly this tyranical anti-spam law. The danger with the law is it could be used to squash free speech. These issues are addressed at length here: http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/LegalPerspective
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in other words lots of noise and no action.:D
 
Pyro said:
That's what makes them stop after you've complained. You still need to complain first though, and it doesn't keep your information away from them. In telemarketing, they only *really* need to call you once, so this has no effect.
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The proposal requires "Failure to comply with a order from the commission...", so both require an intervention after the problem has started. Which do you think will be quicker, a notice from you that spam is unwelcome or an order from the commission?

Pyro said:
Funny that this doesn't mention 45(4), but anyway - that's 1 year max.
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In common with the proposal I think it's 0 years in practice... Now, if "sending emails or texts offering products or services in the absence of prior written permission from the recipient would be illegal." sticks, well that at least is a step towards countering the local spammers. All 0.05% of the spam that you receive from them. :)
 
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