16 February 2008

Taking on the Spammers: Datapro/Vox Telecom - Part 3 - email Ping Pong

Obviously the spammers thought they could just listwash me and be done.  Here's Datapro's latest response:
Subject: RE: Response to ISPA complaint
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:55:45 +0200
From: "Maggie Cubitt" <maggiec@voxtelecom.co.za>
To: "Mike Morris" <me>

Hi Mike Apologies, as I can fully understand your frustration, which is why I am attempting to resolve it comprehensively and finally. I am unable to find the e-mail address mikro2nd@gmail.com on the Contacts database from the DataPro CRM.. and you have extracted the delivery address from your notepad doc. Can I please just confirm that the Newsletter was delivered to the e-mail address mikro2nd@gmail.com?
My response to them:
Maggie Cubitt wrote:

> Apologies, as I can fully understand your frustration, which is why I
> am attempting to resolve it comprehensively and finally.

Please understand that having my own email address removed from your mailing lists is of only limited interest to me in this matter.  The larger issue, which it is my main purpose to tackle, is that of Datapro and Vox Telecom blithely spamming, over an extended period of time, continuing in the face of numerous good-faith attempts to unsubscribe, and in direct violation of

  1) their own Terms of Service,
  2) the email provisions of the ECT Act, and
  3) the ISPA's Code of Conduct.

> I am unable to find the e-mail address mikro2nd@gmail.com on the
> Contacts database from the DataPro CRM.. and you have extracted the
> delivery address from your notepad doc. Can I please just confirm that
> the Newsletter was delivered to the e-mail address mikro2nd@gmail.com?

The spam was not delivered to that email address, but another one.

I am not willing to assist you in listwashing -- the much-loathed practise whereby spammers remove the addresses of the whiners, but continue to blast their unwanted spew out to the Silent Majority Who Just Hit Delete.

I never opted-in to any mailing list belonging to Datapro or Vox Telecom, but was placed on it without my knowledge or consent via person(s) with whom I had contact for purely technical purposes on behalf of my own clients.  This, in turn, means that my email address was repurposed for marketing spam.  In turn Datapro's mailing list was repurposed by Vox Telecom, a company with which I have certainly never had any business relationship.  (Yes, I do understand the relationship between the companies.  No explanation needed.)  Please take note that this is NOT the only list from which I get spammed by Datapro, so your problems are deeper and wider than listwashing a single whiny anti-spam "activist" from a single ill-constructed mailing list or database.

If your lists are NOT fully confirmed-opt-in (and clearly they are not,otherwise I wouldn't be bothering you), then they're spammy lists until you can verify, with a full audit trail, that each and every recipient has positively confirmed their wish to opt in.  Any addresses that cannot be so confirmed must be removed from your databases.  All databases.

The procedure for confirming mailing-list opt-in has been well-established, well-understood, standard practise in legitimate email management for at least the last 30 years, and is correctly implemented by every respectable mailing-list management system.  I would expect an ISP as large as Datapro to be conversant with such established, accepted, and widely-implemented industry-standard, and to have the resources to ensure compliance.  I realise that these practices are somewhat more stringent than required by SA law, but will point out that the ISPA Code of Conduct (para 28) mandates that "ISPA members must operate with due regard for established Internet best practices, as set out in the various request for comment (RFC) documents and as mandated from time to time by established and respected Internet governance structures."  That reads: "established Internet best practices", not "ineffective South African law".  I believe that mailing list operation is covered by RFC-3098 among other resources.

Furthermore, you will, no doubt, have noted that the sample email sent to you is in violation of even the very modest requirements of the ECT Act.  Not to mention the long-term on-going failure to heed good-faith removal instructions as required by the Act.

I trust that Datapro's forthcoming response to this will measure up to the full scope of the organisation's evident ignorance of, or unwillingness to implement, Internet standards and best practise.
Forgive me my skepticism... ;-)

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