A precedent has now been set in South Africa.  Repeat spam offenders are now on notice.  Spammers now have a price on their heads and their names on a Wall of Shame.  It would be nice, if this was a sign of things to come for other countries to place bounties on spammers.

Jani Meyer of the Sunday Tribune reports that a South African Spammer Bounty Hunter Programme offers multiple rewards.  There are 3 ways anyone can receive a reward for providing Information that leads to successful prosecution:

• 7,500 Rands ($958.00) is paid if a spammer admits guilt.

• 15,000 Rands ($1,916.00) if a spammer is convicted in the magistrate’s court.

• 30,000 Rands ($3,831.00) bounty is paid for a conviction in the high court.

Alan Levin, Internet Society of South Africa (ISOC) spokesman, said spam made up more than 70% of monitored e-mail traffic.

He said one of the weaknesses in the current system was that it depended on the recipients to act on the spam they received.

As in many countries, apprehending and prosecution of spammers is difficult. This is mainly due to internet users and police are generally unaware of the local laws and regulations that govern spam.” This often resulted in a technological solution, like installing anti-spam software. This did not stop the spammer.

While local spammers are getting off lightly, Australia has introduced some very strict laws.

Under Australia’s Spam Act of 2003, it is illegal for Australians to be involved in the sending of unsolicited commercial e-mails.

ISOC also collaborated with the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) Hall of Shame launch at the iWeek conference in Johannesburg this past week.

In the spam report, ISPA said it believed that consumers should only receive bulk mail that they had requested, consented to receive, or which they would expect to receive as a result of an existing relationship.

The first members of this hall of shame have been named:

• Database Development
• Dynamic Seminars
• ILLUDER.com Marketing
• James Munro
• The Peer Group.

Names will be removed from the Wall of Shame if the offender submits a written undertaking never to send spam again.

The human factor of bounties paid for people checking spammers, surely can help assist the downgrade flow of spam.  Spammers will also be on notice they cannot just hide behind the legal regulations.  Individidual people will now be watching.  For the bounty process to be effective, governments must educate ordinary citizens on spam laws and under what circumstances bounty payments will be made.