[CentOS] African IP addresses list

[Jacques B.]

On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 7:44 AM, Tony Wicks <tonyw at tonywicks.com> wrote:
>>
> I would like to add something, as a South African citizen. South Africa, is
> NOT part of Africa for that matter, it's a republic on it's own. It's almost
> like saying "Let's ban America, cause someone in Mexico spammed me". South
> Africa, which is on the 196/8 range does a LOT of business overseas in many
> countries, and I do want to warn that you could loose a lot of good business
> due to this practice.
>
> Most of the fraud you experience could come from Nigeria, or one of the
> other central & western Africa countries. To ban a whole continent because
> of problems some countries cause could be problematic.
>
> For that matter is China a different country from Russia, from Switzerland,
> even though they share the same land mass
>
>
> --
>
> I need to put my 2c in here. I'm from New Zealand, we are a first world
> democratic country (the first in the worlds to give the vote to ALL adults I
> may mention). I have had the misfortune many of times of being unable to
> transact business because people from the US in their ignorance think, that
> New Zealand, isn't that part of Australia, which is right next to Asia,
> can't do business with those Asians, they will rip me off. Now sometimes
> people from the US have asked me why people in the other parts of the world
> get a bit annoyed at the "the only country that is free and true if the good
> old US of A" attitude, and well here you go as an example. Lets ban all of
> Africa because someone from Nigeria is a scammer. Africa is a pretty big
> place, and you know what, I've met many South Africans that are real nice
> (even employed a few). I've always been someone who defends America when
> people run it down, but it is a two way street, don't treat a whole country
> as criminals because you don't know the difference between one side of a
> continent from another, its kind of insulting you know. And some day you
> might well need the rest of us, you never know.
>
>
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This is clearly a delicate subject.  As someone pointed out, if the
nature of your business does not lend itself to business transactions
from other countries, then it should not negatively impact a potential
legitimate customer from that range of IP from doing business with you
because it would never happen.  A friend of mine has an automotive
repair shop (who's business would only come from area residents) and
sells tires.  He once received a call from someone from outside the
country looking to purchase 4 tires (some of the higher end ones) and
have them shipped.  It was a stolen credit card and he pretty much
knew that so never processed the order.  An employee might not have
been as alert or as diligent and might have processed it.  This could
have just as easily been via email.  Point is in his case if his
business does not lend itself to having customers or suppliers
originating from a particular geographical area, then blocking
anything from that geographical area would not impact him or a
legitimate customer.  No harm, no foul.  It would protect his business
from potential scam activity from outside his area (if it comes from
within, then hopefully it wasn't someone going through a proxy so
therefore hopefully someone within the reach of the long arm of the
law).

Someone pointed out that 100% of the traffic they receive from Africa
are scams.  That does not mean that 100% of all the traffic
originating from Africa are scams.  There is a difference.  In the
first instance it's 100% of the traffic that THEY receive whereas in
the second case it's 100% of ALL traffic (including the millions of
messages floating out there that the person who made that statement
DOES NOT receive).  However it lends great support to the argument.
His business no doubt does not lend itself to having customers from
that part of the world.  Therefore he would never see legitimate
traffic coming from there as legitimate individuals from there would
have no reason to seek to do business from there.  So the only traffic
he sees (hence 100% of the traffic he sees) originating from there are
scams because only the scammers from Africa would have reason to seek
to contact him under the pretext of a business transaction.

A business in Africa with no business ties to North America (hence
would see no emails from customers or suppliers coming from North
America) could possibly make the same statement, that 100% of the
emails they receive from North America are scams.  Because the honest
North American has no valid reason to seek a business transaction with
them much like the honest African has no reason to seek a business
transaction with many companies in North America.  So in that case it
would be equally appropriate for that African company to block emails
from North Amercian IPs.

A company could have a contact page on their site for someone who
wishes to contact them thus allowing anyone the ability to contact
them in this fashion (one which a scammer is not likely to use because
it's a manual, tedious process vs email shotgun approach).

If your company does potentially do business with any part of the
world, then this is obviously not a good solution.  In addition to all
this you will want to train your employees to recognize a potential
scam either via email or phone.  These days with VoIP it is no longer
cost prohibitive for someone to run phone scams from half way across
the world.

My 2 cents as well.

Jacques B.