The Internet Service Providers' Association of South Africa (ISPA) has released spam protection guidelines outlining methods to identify, unsubscribe from, and report spam emails, spam SMS, instant messaging harassment, and social platform promotional messages. ISPA notes that spam generally refers to unsolicited commercial or fraudulent communications sent to a large number of recipients; its risks go beyond mere annoyance, as it may contain phishing links, malware, fake billing, identity theft, and financial fraud.
Under Section 69 of South Africa's "Protection of Personal Information Act" (POPIA), businesses may not send unsolicited direct marketing communications to individuals via electronic communications. Electronic communications include SMS, email, automatic calling devices, and faxes. Under specific conditions, businesses may contact non-customers only once to request consent to receive subsequent marketing messages; if an individual declines, ignores, or withdraws consent, the business must cease sending marketing content. Businesses are also prohibited from buying or selling databases of personal contact information without obtaining the necessary consent.
ISPA advises users to first determine whether a message comes from a trusted business. For general marketing messages sent by known service providers, users may use the unsubscribe mechanism included in the email or SMS and keep a record of the unsubscription. However, if the sender is unidentified, the link is suspicious, or the unsubscribe page requests additional information such as ID number, bank details, or passwords, users should not click the link or proceed with the operation. Scammers may use the "unsubscribe" process to verify phone numbers or collect more personal data, so suspicious messages are best handled by directly marking them as spam and deleting them.
Users who continue to receive spam from South African businesses may contact the sending business directly to explicitly demand that the messages stop, or file a complaint with the abuse@ address of their internet service provider. If the spam is sent by an ISPA member or an entity using an ISPA member's network, users may seek assistance through ISPA's complaint channels. SMS spam may be reported to WASPA; users may also add their numbers to the "Do Not Contact" lists of WASPA or DMASA to reduce marketing messages from relevant member businesses.
ISPA emphasizes that it does not have the authority to directly block all spam senders, and is particularly unable to address fraudulent activities originating from overseas or non-member networks. Users should still take multiple protective measures, including enabling email filters, using unique passwords, enabling multi-factor authentication, verifying website domain names, and avoiding entering personal or financial information on unfamiliar pages.
