The Direct Marketing Association of SA (DMASA) has been accused of manipulating an online poll to make it look like voters are in favour of it running a national opt-out registry.
However, the association argues it did not fiddle with the voting results, but that a rogue element entered false automatic votes to skew the poll. It says it will take action against the perpetrator.
The DMASA, an umbrella body that looks after the interests of the direct marketing sector, has been short-listed by the National Consumer Commission (NCC) to run the database, which is meant to protect consumers from unwanted SMSes and e-mails.
A national opt-out database, which will allow South Africans to pre-emptively block contact from marketers, including unwanted SMS and e-mail spam, is provided for in the Consumer Protection Act (CPA).
According to the results of an online poll run by the DMASA, 87% of the voters said “yes” to the association running the database.
However, an anonymous blog post on pastebin.com alleges the results were manipulated, and negative responses deleted.
The NCC's preference has already been criticised, as the DMASA's mandate is to protect the sector, rather than consumers.
A log on the blog, kept from 10am yesterday, shows voters were against the DMASA running the registry, with responses reaching 96% against by 17:12, after which the poll was deleted and restarted.
Fake votes
However, DMASA CEO Brian Mdluli has hit back at allegations that the poll was manipulated. He alleges a “rogue element” set up a system to enter automatic votes, which skewed the results.
For every “yes” vote, 22 “no” responses were entered from a single IP address, says Mdluli. He says the site recorded 2 718 votes yesterday alone, but these only came from 400 addresses.
Mdluli says the DMASA has traced an IP address to a Cape Town location and will take action against the perpetrator through the police's commercial crime unit once he has built up a body of evidence.
The association has also tracked some of the alleged false votes to California, to a server Mdluli says is on a European spamming blacklist.
“The day we have all the proof, I'm going to throw the book, the highest possible legal action, against this person.”
The DMASA manages SA's longest running opt-out database. It requires its 398 members to cross-reference marketing lists against the database. However, the association recently came under fire after contact details of the 39 000 people who signed up on the list were leaked.
The public has until today to comment on whether the DMASA should run the national registry.
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