First Lawsuit Against Cell-Phone Spammers

BMcWilliams writes "The PR machine at Verizon Wireless hasn't made any noise about this yet, but the carrier last month filed a lawsuit against some Rhode Island spammers who targeted its cell phone customers with over four million text-message ads for ephedra, penis pills, mortgages, etc. The timing of the lawsuit is interesting, given that the FCC is in the process of hammering out rules governing cell-phone spam. I am told the Verizon litigation is the first of its kind in the USA. My story about the lawsuit, and a copy of Verizon Wireless' complaint, are available here."

Comments

Arms race

[Anonymous Coward]

spammers will simply call you from offshore countries using VOIP or POTS, they can block the caller ID making blocking very hard for providers

face it they are scum and a phone is a lot harder to block than IP addresses, the only solution really is to stop SMS entirely, its always the few that ruin it for the majority

Who pays?

[Jadecristal]

Real simple: in the US, unlike Europe, where the sending/originator of a call or message pays, our scummy mobile phone companies make *US* pay. So, if someone goes to cingular.com and sends me a totally unsolicited message, voila-$.10 for my bill.

And if someone does that 100 times, voila-$10 on my bill. There's not any incentive for the mobile carriers to make it stop, except of customer complaints. Which, in this case, are probably what caused the lawsuit, since Verizon wants to be seen as proactive on the issue. But I really doubt that they mind that much. If there were no complaints, do you think they'd sue?

Re:What I find funny

[Anonymous Coward]

The preacher following you down the road, tapping your shoulder and whispering his salesline into your ear isn't free speech, it's harrassment. Thanks.

There is justice in this world!

[bot]

I got cellphone spam from this very company, and had tried to post it in the 'Ask Slashdot' section some months ago. {2004-02-26 00:25:32 Experience suing cell phone spammers? (Ask Slashdot,Spam) (rejected)}

I did a DNS and phone directory search for the company (The Phoenix Company, Pawtucket , RI), called up the phone phone numbers listed. I also filed a complaint with my cell carrier, and with FCC. I got a form letter response from FCC last month, and thought that was the end of that... till I saw this post.

There is justice in the world after all!!

Re:no charge?

[Zaphod B]

You don't honestly think some underpaid kids in Hyderabad are sitting there wearing out their thumbs actually sending a text message from a cell phone, do you?

You can send text messages through an e-mail gateway. 9175551212@yourcarrier.net, 9175551213@yourcarrier.net -- and since certain blocks of telephone numbers are reserved to cell phone carriers, and the assignments are published by The North American Numbering Plan Administrator, you can text 917555nnnn@yourcarrier.net and get probably 8500 successes out of 10000 e-mails sent.

There is no charge to send e-mail to a cell phone for the sender -- the receiver pays for it.