jkroon

Whilst recently trying to track down yet another South African spam source I got directed to the DMA SA. Whilst the majority of spammers are not members of this association I’m pretty sure that this may help. The reason I say most is because I’ve dealt with my fair share of them (and even had some as clients), and this is the first time I got pointed to the DMA SA website at http://www.dmasa.org/ – a rather informative website.
I honestly don’t know how to start analysing this.  According to their websites their code of conduct (to which ALL their are held) claims to try and say “Direct means business, We mean business and most of all, we respect the rights of our consumers!”.

If you go and dig a bit you should be able to locate the list of members, which seems to be quite a big list, and includes many of the so-called “sources” people have presented me with as the “source” for my phone number and email address (Including Vodacom, Cell C and Woolworths – two of these I had no dealings with and at no point gave them the right – as laid out under the ECT act – to use my details for any marketing purposes).

Well, I guess it’s time “opt-out” and see if the spam on my spam traps increase or decreases, to quote the DMASA regarding this opt-out list:

The “Opt Out Register” (www.facilities.co.za/dcm) was launched on 19 March 2007 and to date around 25 000 consumers have registered online to have their details removed from mailing lists used by marketers to promote goods and services. “The Don’t Contact Me” list – previously known as the Mail Preference Service (MPS), serves the sole purpose of removing your name and address from prospect mailing lists. According to proposed law, any company embarking on a direct marketing campaign will be required to run their list against the Opt Out register and ensure that any names on the DMA register are deleted off their database. Although you will see a reduction in the unsolicited direct mail you receive, not all commercial mail will stop. For example you may continue to receive mail from companies with which you already do business with for example a banking institution – where you have provided consent for them to market to you. In addition, you may continue to receive mail addressed to the “resident/occupant” since the mail is not personalized. To register, click on the “Do not contact” icon and then complete the necessary fields. Of vital importance is the submission of your ID number to ensure that all your details are removed.

I find it a bit obscure that you have to leave the dmasa.org website in order for this opt-out to function.

Other things I find annoying is that I’m only allowed to enter three email addresses – I mean, I’ve got three different IMAP mailboxes configured on my mail client, each of those have in the region of about 5 aliases, that’s a total of somewhere between 15 and 20 addresses.  And that doesn’t even start counting the spamtrap email addresses I have in place (which I the only publication I made of was inside html comments on some arb websites … and was spammed by at least one of the members on their list).

Also, I’ve been contacted by so many call centres in the last few months phoning on behalf of some cellular company that this will be a good test.  And talking of cellular companies – one that is absolutely shining in their absence (but is also least guilty of telemarketing and email spam) is MTN and all their derivatives.  On the other hand – all four of the major banks seems to be listed here, so that at least is good news (but again, they’re not particularly guilty in general).

I also find it very disappointing that they themselves (whilst seemingly backing anti-spam efforts) can’t even comply with email RFC requirements (specifically the part that requires the return path of any email to be willing to accept bounces):

2009-09-15 18:22:23 H=(srvmail.facilities.co.za) [196.41.18.3]
F= rejected RCPT 
Sender verify failed

Oh well, guess I’ll have to drop them an email quick.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 at 6:56 pm and is filed under SPAM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.