Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

First Lawsuit Against Cell-Phone Spammers

Posted by timothy on from the go-cat-go dept.

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."

2 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. Arms race by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative


    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

  2. Who pays? by Jadecristal · · Score: 4, Informative

    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?