South Africa Attempts to Tackle Spam

Johannesburg - June 2007

If you're a resident of South Africa, sending certain kinds of junk internet messages could soon net you up to 10 years behind bars.

Members of South Africa's Law Commission are debating a measure that would specifically target companies that share customer data without their permission. While this may not sound directly related to spam - it precisely describes how many users have their email addresses shared with third parties.

After your email address has made it into the hands of a single spammer, all hope of avoiding future email spam is abandoned. Even if that particular spammer moves on to more legitimate work, there is a high likely hood they'll share or sell their list of validated email addresses with others in the trade. Even the best spam software won't save your from having to deal with at least a few unsolicited messages.

The new law would declare that email addresses consist of private data and that sending them unsolicited messages would be against the law. Cell phone numbers are afforded similar protection. The legislation would form a new task force to provide enforcement.

Once a company or individual was informed that the messages they are sending are illegal, they must stop or face up to a decade in prison.

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