I replied with a detailed response, noting that the MX record points to a web virtual-hosting box at RSAWeb that isn’t accepting SMTP (I imagine having a broken MX suits Dynamic Seminars just fine), and that the website is a RSAWeb domain parking page.

Mark responded with this:

Thanks for putting this out in the wild, we do not condone spam & spammers. Unfortunately its always difficult to isolate these spammers as they tend to be small and difficult to detect unless we notice an abuse pattern or receive spam complaints! However we always make a concerted effort to stop these guys. Spam is inherintly evil and we have terminated the services of spammers that havent even made this ISPA hall of shame list (and will continue to do so).

He also said they’ve suspended the hosting until they have concluded their investigation. When I checked this afternoon, the domain parking page was still up, so I don’t know what they mean by “suspended”. Also, the specific spammer is number one out of twenty-five on the ISPA list, which hardly makes them small, or difficult to detect.

Nevertheless, RSAWeb at least took notice, which is probably more than I can say for the others in my ISPA members hall of shame.

1. The post started with the words “This morning”…
2. Couldn’t they get the list off the ISPA site and do their own lookups?

After filtering out domains without MX records, MX records without valid A records, and IP addresses for which whois lookups failed, the 63 listed domains whittled down to 44 servers, of which 14 are hosted by ISPA members.

So Localloop.co.za hereby presents the ISPA member hall of shame:

1. Hetzner (4 servers, 2 of which are hosted in Germany)¹
2. Webafrica (4 servers, 3 of which are hosted in the US)
3. Internet Solutions: (2 servers)²
4. Datapro (2 servers)
5. RSAWeb (1 server)³
6. AboutIT (1 server)

The only non-ISPA member is Intekom (Telkom SA) with one spammer mail server.

This does not prove the spammers listed use these mail servers for sending spam (they could use any other ISP for that, and judging by recent complaints on the IOZ list, Vodacom SA is one of the favorite providers for spammers).

Having said that, wouldn’t you expect ISPA members to uphold the spirit of the anti-spam clause in the ISPA code of conduct by not hosting mail servers for the ISPA’s own list of spammer domains?

1. Tie with Webafrica, but I put them first because one of WA’s spammer mail servers is hosted by Hertzner.
2. Tie with Datapro, but I put them first because AboutIT’s spammer mail server is hosted by IS.
3. Tie with AboutIT, but I put them first because they have their own data center.

It seems I was overly optimistic about the conclusion of Broadband Infraco’s licensing when I blogged about it back in March this year. The process is stalled in a dispute:

During the regulator’s public hearings, ISPA (among others) objected to the issuing of the IECS license, due to fears that Infraco will turn into another anti-competitive vertically-integrated government telco. I agree, that wouldn’t be good for the country.

On the other hand, ISPA’s members now have their own happy-meal licenses, enabling then to operate national networks. This they couldn’t do before, but the problem is, they don’t have national networks. Instead, they want to restrict market access of the only organization (other than Telkom) that has a national network, to themselves. As middle-men this would guarantee them fat profit margins, and it would not guarantee the intended outcome of cheaper telecoms for the rest of us.

So how about a compromise: ICASA issues Broadband Infraco an IECS license with a condition that permits them to provide optical transport services to everyone (including the retail market), but no higher level (IP transit) services. ISPA can’t object, because they’re supposed to represent Internet Service Providers.