MyBroadBand published an interesting article about South African email addresses being sold on a chinese-based website. The article goes as follows:
Millions of South African email addresses are for sale to spammers on a Chinese-based website. The www.3sent.info website, which claims to take pride in “staying on the leading edge of innovative marketing” is selling the more than 9 million South African email addresses for just $100.
A sample of more than 2000 of the South African email addresses includes high profile organisations such as The Star newspaper, the CSIR and a number of government addresses. This author’s email addresses is just one of the sample addresses on the list.
Despite claiming that their services include “the highest quality opt-in list on the market,” the number of “webmaster” and “contactus” addresses in the sample suggest that the addresses have been harvested from websites and compiled into countries.
I’m not entirely sure what to make of all of this, but it’s something most of us have been aware of for a very long time. Spam blockers and such are great and all, but they’ll never prevent every spam email from getting through.
The site claims that it has 9.3 million South African email addresses, which you can purchase for just $100.00 (+-R790.00).
I hope that something is done about this, because spam is on the rise, and it’s soon going to be unmanageable!
Rather than being worried I’d go buy this database asap before it’s taken down. It’s a pretty good deal!
Worrisome though…
I wonder if they have my name on their list?
Hope so, because I could always do with some more spam.
Would it not be a great idea to SPAM those people on the sample lists in order to “alert” them to the fact that they are on the list?
Then they can email this idiot and get him to remove their email addresses off of his list ????
Maybe somebody can actually provide a full version of the SA list?
@Andrew G: That is rather naive of you, if I may be so bold as to point it out.
The guy selling the list is not going to take a single name off because they simply DO NOT CARE.
@Richard Catto: Well, he took my email address off… so he must care!
;-)
I think it’s super dodgy that these places are selling our email addresses and for only $100, lol, that’s dodgy! But ye, I guess I should quickly purchase a list now and get a mail off while they’re still fresh ;)
Oh crap, one of my email addresses is on there …. jeesh, and I already get THOUSANDS of spam mails a day!
Some are from local companies and when I’ve called a few of them to find out where they got my email address (or cellphone number – get lots of sms spam too), they all say they’ve either purchased databases from some private seller or got access to my information from some “national consumer database.”
Pees me off that my privacy can be invaded like that …
It’s terribly annoying, my spam has increased in a huge way over the past few months. What’s getting awful at the moment, is the number of recruitment agencies which are sending me job placements, at first it’s flattering, but now it’s just plain annoying!
Ye, and the scary thing is that there’s little or no way to avoid it :/
Huh? Is your gmail programmed to show you the spam and put your real mail into the spam box?
No no, it just chucked into the spam folder, but some get through and even though it’s in the spam folder, it’s still there are the number 23423432432 next to spam gets somewhat annoying ;)
This is insane! Can we not do anything to stop this kind of thing? The last thing i want now is chinese spam!
The bottom of the page has an even better deal: “Buy all 136 nations – US$380″
Ye mate, it’s damn annoying and the thing is, there’s very little to prevent it! Drives me mad.. I find that Gmail is pretty good at blocking spam, what email application do you use?
Im using gmail and thunderbird – it does handle the spam very well. In four years i think ive had about a handful of mails seep into the spam folder and 99.99% of the spam is correctly labeled. However, there is one exception:
This reminds me, sometime last year, i had one of my domains with a catch-all address redirecting to my main inbox (something i had forgotten about since the domain was dormant) – and on one fine random day i just started getting hit by spam, not just by a little bit but somewhere around 500 mails every minute! The damn thing was too fast and i couldnt stop it! A lot of the mail was coming through to my inbox as well.
Fortunately, I was online at the time and managed to disable the catch-all. I had about 100 spam emails in my inbox and over 5000 or so in the spam folder in the space of 10 minutes!
Sheesh, that’s crazy! I’ve had a time before where someone accessed one of my servers and setup a spam mailer, which upon sending millions of emails, would send back bounced emails, which appeared in my inbox.. needless to say, I had an hour or so of emails flying into my inbox, what a nightmare it was!
Did anyone manage to buy the list?
@Lester: Yup, and for $75 it’s yours.
(kidding – sorry, I could not resist)
Cool, what’s my special one time only bonus offer if I buy now?
I don’t hear any “that’s not all” or “order right now.”
Maybe glomail should start selling lists,lol
@Lester: an X-rated response came to mind. Heheheh.
Haha, there’s NO selling of email addresses on this website!
look at this website and can some-one please tell me where i can purchase south african email addresses,i need millions as to make this website work.and please alot of people talk about spam but do they actually know what yhe word spam stands for?easy
SUPER PROFESSIONAL ADVERTISING METHOD -S.P.A.M
JACO
jaco – spamming is illegal!
Jaco Dercksen that posted above is a pest. I have been spammed by him for the past couple of weeks now so he obviously found a source for email addresses.
Our Jaco spammed me repeatedly until I had his ISP (Hetzner) shut him down – he moved to another ISP of course and now sends spam from there. LOSER
I see I’m not the only one that’s been spammed.
Well, if it’s the same Jaco Dercksen, he’s been sending emails trying to get me to donate money to hire a hitman to take out Julius Malema.
A poep of the first order, one of those old-time AWB types who’s now learned how to email and is taking the struggle online. To the world! He says that people in 19 countires support his initiative. Lol.
Mr Jaco is still spamming me too. Whats the point with having this super advanced constitution and wonderful communications act if it cannot be applied.
Well, here is some more info about the big man for those who care:
http://newheightsgroup.co.za/index.php?option=com_contact&Itemid=46
I have contacted his new ISP to cancel his service. Lets see where he surfaces next.
Same here. Jaco and his side-kick Estelle 0849511614 are operating out of Brits. No matter what you do, where you blacklist him, he refuses to remove me from his mailing lists and keeps sending spam. I understand the only way to deal with him is to lay a charge against him at SAPS, and I have found the appropriate criminal code under which to do so. I spoke to Dercksen himself a year to two ago, and he assured me that my mail not being removed was a result of an error on the part of the company running his server, but after the 7th time my unsubscribing did not work, I don’t believe him at all. My service provider has also complained to the authorities, but he keeps coming back. Serial spammer.
He called me a spineless white man when I disagreed with is hitman scheme. (how does he know whether Im white or not? Dingbat). It got a lot more insulting after that & he dared me to report him to the national intellience agency. Of course, I followed his suggestion, they have a website with contact details etc. Itll be interesting to see if the spam law gets applied, I remember they threw someone in jail around 2002 for it, but havent heard of any other cases.
That Jaco is indeed the pest. I once called him and he almost started crying. I started a case against him. This post will help me a lot.
Glad to see that people are still active here :)
Chris
i see you are the fool reckoning you had me almost crying one night, i just don’t hope it is you with the softy face on the photo , i break you in two young man, may ne i should give you my home address then try and come and see if you can make me crying
jaco
Excuse me?
Waco Jaco
lol
Jaco
Give me your home address.
Jaco, I did not realize you had this fanbase. I have notified some of the people you listed on your website. They were not even aware you are listing them as your employer. Seeing that they are attorneys, you will have fun there I’m sure.
Last year (2010) Jonathan Schoeman found a tweet I made about me and demanded that I remove it from my twitter timeline claiming it defamed him as a scammer.
I told him to go fuck himself. Then he started emailing me threats and I just piled the abuse on. He then called me and I piled more abuse on. He was dancing like a monkey on a string.
Then he started begging and pleading with me. He had previously bragged that he had a lot of cash, so I said, well pay me to take some action for you then. I knew he wouldn’t so the tweet still stays there and here’s another google entry telling the world that:
Jonathan Schoeman is a scammer, spammer, con-artist and general arsehole. Do not do business with this cretin.
He is listed on ISPA’s Hall of Shame: http://ispa.org.za/spam/hall-of-shame/
For Jaco and Estelle, these are the latest details:
Jaco: 074 749 9901
Estelle: 076 381 8647 / 035 340 2683
I find this rich from Richard Catto regarding Jaco. They suckle from the same breast. He says that Jaco is listed on ISPA’s Hall of Shame: http://ispa.org.za/spam/hall-of-shame/
So is Richard!
Do a google search. He’s not only a serial spammer but a racist neo-nazi with bully tendancies (and everyone knows that bullies are really cowards).
This guy has a really bad rap and it is 100% earned!
The really confusing thing is that Richard is bitching about a completely different guy. But I did see his name on that ISPA list.
Jaco seems to have calmed down though. I have not received too much crap from him lately.
b2bmach4 dot info/ is the latest spammer. if anyone is in Durban, feel free to look these guys up.
ISPA listed me without even contacting me. If they had asked me to investigate, I would have co-operated. I emailed them asking to be removed and they did not reply. So, I think they just hate people who run mailing lists.
As for the rest, if you believe an anonymous blog on blogger, you must be really gullible.
If I write an anonymous blog about you, maybe people will believe something bad about you too?
Microsoft and Yahoo both removed slander about me from their sites, but google refuses to co-operate and shut that blog down.
Fair enough.
to put it plainly: most mailing list sellers are in my opinion scum.
They did not get permission to use my details and have no right to sell it or make it in any way available without permission.
Companies that I catch selling my details, get sued. Failing which, Accidents do happen.
Why not stop selling email addresses and get a real business.
I must step in here and back Richard, I’ve watched his mailing list division expand over the years and have been on his lists to receive his emails and none of them have been spam. Sure, I stand to be corrected, but as of now I back Richard.
I don’t sell mailing lists, I operate them. I also developed ctnlist, which is a php web app to operate a mailing list. It’s a replacement for phplist.
Then you are not on my list of scum… ;-)
I get upset with the companies that use loopholes. like mailing introductory letters from a business, and then simply changing the name to send more crap.
that way it is yet another introduction and can use the ECT loophole.
If Richard has built up legitimate lists, then great…
Who knows… if I was on one of those lists by choice, you would not hear a peep from me.
in that case, good luck with ISPA and getting off the list. I hear they do honour those requests if they have assurances that you will not spam. (not talking about opt-in mails…)
Richard, if you operate ctnlist and (I presume) the affiliated lists ctnserver.net, ctn financial news, etc., then you completely are a spammer and a perpetrator of UCE.
I suddenly started receiving mails from several of your lists WITHOUT OPTING IN a few months ago. Subsequently, after unsubscribing, I get an email saying that I might still be in “the queue” – 3 months later I appear to still be in “the queue” and this despite having unsubscribed supposedly from all your lists.
Your name should be painted right up there with Jaco’s as far as I’m concerned – I hope someone hits your ISP with a DOS attack. Loser.
“So, I think they (ISPA) just hate people who run mailing lists.” No Richard, they hate spammers – Unsolicited Bulk mailers like you. You send me all kinds of rubbish that I am not interested in, and for which I never opted in or asked to. You either troll the WWW for emails (troll that you are), or buy mailing lists. Whichever, you are a serial spammer.
As an aside, why is your capetownnews website down?
And as another aside, why are you such a bully. Google has a plenthora of listings for you, mostly bad. You have developed some seriously bad karma and you know what happens to bad people.
You had an altercation with the editors at Senseonline when your friend/aquaintenace Marisa Robson/Cronje couldn’t understand simple terms of paid contribution.
So instead of calmly trying to sort it out, you spewed vitriol of the following sort:
Death Threats
At just after 8pm on Wednesday night Pat received the first of a number of emails from friends of Marisa. This one was from Richard Catto, the publisher of a website called Cape Town News: ‘Hey d!ckhead. You f@cking w@nker! Do you want me to break every f@cking bone in your f@cking body?? My friend, Marisa, told you not to publish her story, so YOU DON’T DO IT. If you do, you will regret it. You f@cking c@cksucker.’
(I have added the @s for those less sensitive than Richard). Google the story, there is more.
So Richard, please don’t even attempt to take any moral highground. You are scum of the lowest order. In every respect. You have wronged a lot of people.
Don’t be surprised when that b!tch Karma comes around and bites you back.
Never heard of Richard Catto & don’t really care about spam, which is at worst an annoyance. Actually I don’t know why people bother doing it, it must be the world’s least effective advertising method.
However, I find Google’s attitude towards slander simply appalling. If I were Richard, I’d lay a charge against Google at the nearest cop shop.
Andy, if you forward me a copy of any of the emails you receive from me, I’ll investigate the issue for you.
@Spam-hater: I make no apology for offending Sense Online. The editor, Patrick, since deceased, outright stole Marisa Robson’s material and claimed ownership. He was told by an official organisation that Marisa contacted for help that ownership remained vested with the author unless they explicitly signed it over, which she had not done.
You’re commenting on a story without knowing the facts. Sense Online put forward a completely biased account of what transpired. They outright lied about Marisa, myself and another friend of Marisa’s who contacted them.
I’m not going to explain myself to you. I stand by my actions. I did make those threats and they deserved them 200%. I would do it again and I will do it again if anyone attacks or harms my close friends. It’s called being a loyal friend.
And Spam-hater, you are anything but CALM, so don’t lecture others on being calm.
When people threaten my friends, I am anything but CALM. I am angry. I don’t intend changing this about myself. Go work on your own character defects.
Richard, you’re a bully, plain and simple. Because you lack the intellect to speak to people ina civil way, you resort to expletives and name-calling. Your low-down scum. Pure and simple.
Would you be willing to explain where you get all the emails to where you send your unsolicited spam?
Do you believe you are operating ethically?
Why don’t you 2 have a duel at dawn?
I think you’re both OTT. hohoho. Entertaining anyway.
Yes, I use swear words. Sue me.
Well at least you’re not resorting to insults like spam-hater. C’mon, spam-hater, fight, fight!
Why would anyone hate spam with such a passion anyway? It’s like, pfft, who cares.
Mostly I just don’t like people like wako jaco sending mails asking for money to hire hitmen. Also sites like hellopeter.com selling the email addresses of every unsuspecting fool who types their contact details into a site.
Backing Hellopeter on this one…
I have been a member for many years and I am able to monitor every website that uses the unique email address that I assign to them.
Therefore when I receive spam, I can identify which mailing list it came from.
Geoff, do you maybe dislike Hellopeter because you got a bad review?
Yes, from someone who didn’t feel like paying me, and posted an anonymous comment. Hellopeter thought they could hit me for money. Didn’t work, the comment was removed. hohohoho
Spam-Hater could pretend to be one of Richard Catto’s customers, and send in an anonymous complaint about him. They wouldn’t bother to check, and his name would be all over Google.
The only thing is, Spam-Hater would probably receive lots of spam. So I dunno if he’d want to do that.
Geoff, you may enjoy the scourge of spam. I do not. Just like I don’t like religion pushed down my throat, I don’t want unsolicited bulk mail from spammers who waste my time and money having to download and delete their mails.
(I have had no personal dealings with Richard before this, apart from unsubscribing from one list, only to appear on another… If he was so ethical, he wouldn’t register dozens of domain names from where to spew forth his vomitous spam – he’s listed on the ISPA Hall of Shame for a reason).
If I want spam, I’ll sign up for it. But don’t make my choices for me and send me rubbish that I have no need for or desire to read.
I am trying to point out (hence my own unclam vitroil) that not only is Richard a spammer, he’s a completely shadowy character without morals. A woman-basher and if loads of other websites are to be believed, a racism who hates Afrikaners and wants to kill them all.
I’m the one that is irritated. He’s the psychotic one that needs medication, care and a strait jacket.
I’m sure someone has listed me on hellopeter already. It doesn’t really matter. The people who do business with me do so because I treat them well and offer them something that benefits them.
@ Richard: “Yes, I use swear words. Sue me.”
You wouldn’t believe it if I told you, but my daughter of 6 is unable to conceptualise thoughts more juvenile than you.
#justsaying
I would not automatically believe stuff written about people anyway.
If the person is running his business in a legitimate way, I’m all calm.
Spammers on the other hand rank just above pedophiles.
@Richard, if you don’t get many spma complaints, you can track the people that had an issue with you.
Obviously if you have hundreds of complaints,and really do own the multiple sites that are associated with spam, then the shoe must fit.
All I know is that if I meet a known spammer, I would seriously consider assault.
Hey chill, Spam Hater. It’s really not that serious. Certainly not as serious as people wasting loads of trees to put junk in your snail-mail box.
C’mon, Richard, do everyone a favour & go lay a charge against Google.
You could make millions, you know.
And I could probably tell you how to go about it. Google are not the wonderful people that everyone seems to think, in my opinion. Try hanging out on their help forum for a few years & you might agree.
For a start, it seems very likely to me that they make more money out of advertising porn than anything else. Over $43,000 per day for appearing at the top of adwords for the keyword “porn”, just in the US. One keyword, in one position, in one country, for one day. This from a company built on the slogan “Don’t Be Evil”. hohohohoho
Like, I found this. On Google.
http://richardcatto.wordpress.com/about/
And importantly, it’s published in their cache, at http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=wQb&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&biw=1440&bih=694&source=hp&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Frichardcatto.wordpress.com%2Fabout%2F&pbx=1&oq=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Frichardcatto.wordpress.com%2Fabout%2F&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=291802l295535l0l297670l7l5l0l0l0l0l0l0ll2l0
Now this is obviously some malicious person doing their utmost to damage your livelihood. They may even have succeeded, without you being any the wiser. And who’s fault is it that anyone sees this?
Pfft. Really offensive. Why do you put up with it?