In September 2008 the Internet Service Providers’ Association of South Africa (ISPA) released its first ‘Hall of Shame’ report naming some of the country’s top spammers. The ‘Hall of Shame’ forms part of ISPA’s broader strategy to fight the growing deluge of spam in South Africa.<\/p>\n
Spam remains one of the Internet’s biggest headaches for consumers, businesses and spammers, costing all parties a fortune in wasted bandwidth and time. Good news for South Africans is that the Hall of Shame is showing some positive results.<\/p>\n
Five spammers previously listed spammers have signed an undertaking to observe best practice when sending commercial email and have subsequently been removed from the list.<\/p>\n
Rob Hunter, Chair of ISPA’s Anti-spam Working Group, said at the time: “ISPA has launched a number of significant initiatives to fight the problem of spam. With the publication of the ‘Hall of Shame,’ we’re hoping to take spam prevention measures another step forward. South Africa’s spammers have had it easy to date and that is set to change.”<\/p>\n
Some local spammers however seem to feel indifferent at being branded a spammer, and the latest ISPA Spam Hall of Shame contains two spammers – Dynamic Seminars and New Heights – who have both been listed since mid-2009. <\/p>\n
South African spammers identified in the latest ISPA Spam Hall of Shame are:<\/p>\n
1. Dynamic Seminars
2. New Heights 1268 \/ Jaco Derksen
3. SA Webs
4. Computer Corporation Marketing
5. Bridging Finance | Making money with SMS Shortcodes | Bizopp
6. www.we-insure.co.za
7. C2IT
8. Creativehearts.co.za
9. Laurinda Wernars Database Design
10. Burgundyrealty
11. info@kelvininvest.co.za
12. info@lerozinvest.co.za
13. info@sorinvest.co.za
14. PHOTO & FILM EXPO
15. The Web Worx
16. Homemark
17. Market Survey (Casaline)
18. AstroTech Training<\/p>\n
The report also named the following individuals and companies which have been identified as advertising lists of South African email addresses for sale or use by others:<\/p>\n
1. Mark Tribelhorn
2. Affordable Construction
3. Rain Marketing
4. Media Online
5. Mandy Simone
6. Ezee-dex
7. Timothy Heston
8. BP Media<\/p>\n