Acceptable Use & Abuse Policy

1. Purpose of This Policy

Website Design Office (Pty) Ltd provides domain registration, domain management, website hosting, email hosting, website development and related digital services.

Customers may not use these services for unlawful, fraudulent, abusive, harmful or malicious activities.

This policy applies to customers, domain registrants, authorised users and any person making use of services provided or managed by Website Design Office.

2. General Acceptable Use

Customers must use Website Design Office services responsibly and in accordance with applicable South African law, registry requirements and generally accepted internet practices.

Customers are responsible for the content, applications, email accounts and activities associated with their services.

3. Prohibited Activities

Website Design Office services may not be used to participate in, facilitate or promote activities including:

• fraud or attempted fraud;
• phishing or identity theft;
• malware, viruses, ransomware or malicious software;
• unauthorised access to systems, networks or accounts;
• distribution of stolen credentials or confidential information;
• spam or unsolicited bulk electronic communications;
• domain names used primarily for deceptive or fraudulent purposes;
• activities intended to disrupt networks, websites or online services;
• illegal or prohibited content;
• copyright or intellectual-property infringement;
• impersonation or deliberate misrepresentation;
• activities that violate applicable registry policies; or
• any activity prohibited by applicable law.

4. Email and Spam

Email accounts supplied or hosted by Website Design Office may not be used to send unsolicited bulk email, deceptive marketing messages, phishing messages or other abusive electronic communications.

Customers conducting legitimate marketing campaigns should ensure that recipients have an appropriate basis for receiving those communications and that reasonable unsubscribe mechanisms are provided where applicable.

5. Phishing and Fraud

Domains, websites and email services may not be used to imitate another person, company, financial institution, government organisation or online service for the purpose of misleading users or obtaining information unlawfully.

Website Design Office may take urgent action where credible evidence indicates that a service is being used for phishing, credential theft or other fraudulent activity.

6. Malware and Compromised Websites

Customers must take reasonable steps to secure their websites, applications, email accounts and passwords.

A website or hosting account that becomes compromised may be temporarily restricted or suspended where necessary to prevent malware distribution, spam, attacks or harm to other users.

Website Design Office may require the affected customer to update software, remove malicious files, reset passwords or take other reasonable security measures before full service is restored.

7. Domain Name Abuse

A domain managed through Website Design Office may not knowingly be used for phishing, malware distribution, fraud, abusive communications or other unlawful activities.

Domain names remain subject to the policies and procedures of the applicable registry.

Where a complaint concerns the registration, ownership or entitlement to a domain name, the matter may need to be handled through the applicable registry dispute-resolution procedure rather than through this Acceptable Use Policy.

8. Intellectual Property Complaints

Website Design Office does not determine complex copyright, trademark or ownership disputes solely on the basis of an informal complaint.

Complaints involving intellectual property should contain sufficient information to identify the affected material, the rights allegedly infringed and the basis of the complaint.

Website Design Office may refer complainants to the appropriate legal, registry or dispute-resolution process where necessary.

9. Security and Network Abuse

Customers may not use Website Design Office infrastructure to conduct or facilitate:

• denial-of-service attacks;
• unauthorised vulnerability scanning;
• password attacks or credential harvesting;
• network intrusion;
• unauthorised interception of communications;
• distribution of malicious code; or
• attempts to interfere with other customers or systems.

10. Excessive Resource Use

Hosting and email services must be used within the technical limits and intended purpose of the applicable service.

Website Design Office may contact a customer where unusually high resource usage negatively affects server stability, network performance or services used by other customers.

Where appropriate, Website Design Office may recommend an alternative hosting configuration or service level.

11. Reporting Abuse

Abuse reports relating to a domain, website, hosting account or email service managed by Website Design Office should be submitted to:

An abuse report should, where possible, include:

• the domain name or website involved;
• a description of the alleged abuse;
• relevant URLs;
• dates and approximate times;
• copies of relevant email headers where email abuse is involved;
• screenshots or other supporting evidence; and
• the complainant's contact details.

Sufficient information should be supplied to allow Website Design Office to reasonably investigate the complaint.

12. Investigation of Abuse Reports

Website Design Office will review abuse reports based on the information available and may contact the customer or complainant where additional information is required.

Submission of a complaint does not automatically establish that a violation has occurred.

Website Design Office may consider the seriousness of the alleged conduct, available evidence, risk to other users and applicable legal or registry obligations when determining an appropriate response.

13. Action Website Design Office May Take

Where Website Design Office reasonably determines that a service is being used in violation of this policy, action may include:

• requesting that the customer remove or correct the offending activity;
• requiring security remediation;
• restricting an affected email account;
• temporarily suspending a hosting service;
• temporarily disabling access to compromised content;
• escalating a domain matter to the applicable registry;
• complying with a valid legal or regulatory instruction; or
• terminating services in serious or repeated cases.

14. Urgent Threats

Website Design Office may take immediate temporary action without prior notice where reasonably necessary to address an urgent security threat, active phishing campaign, malware infection, network attack or other activity capable of causing significant harm.

15. Customer Notification

Where reasonably possible, Website Design Office will notify the affected customer when action is taken against a service.

Notification may be delayed or omitted where immediate action is necessary for security reasons, where prohibited by law, or where doing so could interfere with an investigation.

16. Law-Enforcement and Legal Requests

Website Design Office may cooperate with lawful requests from courts, law-enforcement agencies, regulators or other competent authorities where required by applicable law.

Website Design Office will not disclose customer information to an unrelated third party merely because that party requests it.

17. False or Abusive Complaints

Abuse-reporting channels may not themselves be used to harass customers, submit knowingly false allegations or interfere improperly with legitimate businesses.

Website Design Office may decline to act on complaints that are clearly unsupported, abusive or unrelated to services under its control.

18. Relationship With Other Policies

This policy should be read together with Website Design Office's:

• Domain Registration & Transfer Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Complaints & Takedown Procedure

19. Changes to This Policy

Website Design Office may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in legislation, security practices, registry requirements or the services we provide.

The latest version published on our website will apply.

20. Contact Information

For abuse, security, domain or policy enquiries, contact: