Glenn wrote: > At 09:38 AM 7/1/2008, you wrote: >> On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 7:44 AM, Tony Wicks >> <<mailto:tonyw at tonywicks.com>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. >> >> >> >> >> If a business only wants to do transaction with people in their own >> country, what is wrong with that? There is no international law that >> says they have to provide services or products to you because you >> live in a different country. Sometimes the lost revenue by not doing >> business outside your own country is better than having to deal with >> the possibility of fraud. Sometimes it is more of a hassle to deal >> with shipping, service and/or support issues with people from a >> different country and it's just not worth it. >> >> -- >> -matt > > > Hello All, > > I've seen a lot of very good and valid comments come out of this > discussion! > > I had a mail server that, initially, had no need for foreign (Outside > US) communication. Then exceptions started highly complicating the > situation. > > I used this database lookup to compile a list, by country, of those I > wanted to block based upon my mail server's history with > communications with them and on the histories of my users/customers. > > http://ip.ludost.net/ > > Very useful tool! > > Cheers, > Glenn Parsons Combine that with this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_continent_(data_file) and then can you eliminate a continent or two of your wish. /Mats