The crazy truth behind those Web9 emails you keep getting

[Jamie McKane]

The crazy truth behind those Web9 emails you keep getting

Many people around the country will be familiar with emails about a locally-produced search engine named Web9.

These emails obfuscate the sender name to impersonate various well-known companies which may trick the receiver into opening the mail.

 

[Cactus]

That company needs to die. I had to add special cpanel email filters on one of our websites because their unsubscribe function does nothing and we never subscribed! It's really annoying.

I classify them the same as any other "door to door sales" product.

 

[Bernie]

Lol!! It seems they trying to sell a product that they themselves think doesn't work to well.

 

[quovadis]

What is Web9?
Web9 is the first search engine to be built in Africa for the world. Some call it the Google of Africa.

Lol what a load of BS.

 

[McGuywer]

I agree, they must die.

 

[system32]

“I will no longer use the term ‘Google’ or ‘Google Africa’ in a misleading manner on our new website, marketing materials, social media or any other place,” Mushipe told Google.

and then goes on to use

On the Web9 website, the company states that it offers affordable and simple advertising, and calls itself the “Google of Africa”.

Very unethical, very suspect, not a good search engine.
Avoid

 

[ToxicBunny]

Can't say I've ever received these sorts of email... maybe GMail is epic at just binning them automagically...

But I know which search engine to never use now at least.

 

[joecool]

And what about gmail.co.za? Who is behind that?

 

[Temujin]

So, consistently breaking ect... spoofing and spamvertising along with things like no permanent removal from mail lists(as well as sign up to begin with) thats just tip of iceberg, propably dozens of breaches of various acts... so, when with they be shut down?

 

[Thor]

I see lawsuits coming.

 

[swordfish1]

This web9 is a scam, people behind it must go to jail, where they belong!

I have tried to "unsubscribe" myself from the spam they send daily and I even threatened to report them to Google etc. , but they did nothing and I have not had time to act on this.

If somebody has the time to deal with this, please report them or perhaps MyBroadband can do this for us now that they have all the details of the person behind it. Internet should be cleaned up from garbage like this, it is unacceptable that this has been going for so long without any consequences for the perpetrators.

There are many beginner online entrepreneurs in South Africa, trying to get a business started with honest efforts and usually little money and I am sure this fraudsters are capitalizing on their inexperience telling them how "affordable" their advertising is and neglecting to mention how their "advertising" produces absolutely NO results. This is absolute fraud.

 

[User217]

If somebody has the time to deal with this, please report them or perhaps MyBroadband can do this for us now that they have all the details of the person behind it. Internet should be cleaned up from garbage like this, it is unacceptable that this has been going for so long without any consequences for the perpetrators.

I have an idea for you... I use SpamCop for these sort of thing: https://www.spamcop.net/. Very strong medicine against spam!

You can use of for free or you can buy a subscription. You copy and paste your message including the headers into their website and they will trace where the email originates from based on the sender IP. They then send a pre-fromatted letter of complaint to the senders ISP, not himself. If his ISP does not respond, they blacklist the senders outgoing SMTP server. That simple! Blacklisted SMTP Server IP addresses are regularly send to all well know anti spam services. Getting yourself off one of those lists is a lot of work and it takes several days of proving that you are not a spammer.

In all the instances I have reported a spammer, I never get email from the same spammer again. All ISP's have the same outlook on spam and that is blacklist first and ask questions later! You can hit back where it hurts!

Regards,

 

[Thor]

Impersonating a bank

 

[envo]

I sit right next to a dude in the office who commented "why didn't mybroadband point out how illegal this is? it's a crime in this country to send unsolicited email for marketing purposes like that"

He also posted it as a comment on the article, but got deleted by mods. Seems like you guys are showing your true colours

 

[swordfish1]

I have an idea for you... I use SpamCop for these sort of thing: https://www.spamcop.net/. Very strong medicine against spam!

Thanks for advice, but my main concern is that there are apparently 6000+ innocent people who were defrauded by this criminals and the criminals are still at large ...

 

[envo]

In all the instances I have reported a spammer, I never get email from the same spammer again.

sure buddy, it's most likely the same spammer, and web9 admittedly "change things up" to counter spam guards put in place (opening rates for emails is a BS excuse). what they're doing is illegal

 

[envo]

I tried checking to see if I can find the host behind web9 to contact them directly with a docket # from the police as I laid a criminal charge against them now. Unfortunately they're good at hiding their tracks, using Zoho as their mail provider to hide their IP more effectively through another 3rd party. They also appear to have disabled the normal "direct" subdomain on cloudflare that allows you to go to your site without going through cloudflare first. guess I'll leave the police to their job *enforcing the law* while MyBB just reports on it

 

[LazyLion]

And what about gmail.co.za? Who is behind that?

Apparently that website was created long before Gmail and the owner won a court case to retain it.

 

[padjakkels]

as Web9 don't want to stop spamming me, I took it on myself to message them every day on their website, and on their facebook page. it worked. apparently, they took my email address off. but after calling me an ******* and old man first.

 

[Thor]

Wow!