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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."
In addition to their anti-spam efforts Verizon has opposed the cell-phone directory--and in the broadband-whore department, are at the forefront of deploying FTTP--which I personally want today.
I'm not a huge fan of VZW--although they do have great coverage, at least IMBY.
Sigs cause cancer.
So when do you get my 0.50 cent coupon for a Big Mac when I walk by a McDonalds?
:(
Big Brother, where art thou?
I don't have a cell phone (yup, there actually ARE people without 'em) but I think there should be a way to get credit for the minutes that Spam costs a receiving cell.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
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
It's v1a.gra, idiot.
Although they are not my carrier, I hope that other carriers will take notice and support them on this issue.
No one should ever have to pay for advertising unless without their consent. If you want to spam me then get my permission and pay me for it. If I agree then pay for part of my bill, not just the cost to send your message, but more so that my service is cheaper.
42
I hate whitelisting. Its just a poor way to protect the end user. There are many instances, both for email, or cell phones where a whitelist will block an important transmission. To push whitelisting as the solution is a cop-out. It increases litigation, but creating good, informed, solid and unambiguous laws is the best way to stop spammers.
Moo.
I'm not sure cellphone spam is such a great prospect from the spammers point of view anyways. You can't easily do nearly the same amount of volume. Based on the numbers from the article, these guys were only sending about one message every two seconds (~43,500 per day). Which may seem like a lot, but it's nothing when contrasted to a lot of e-mail spammers that are sending out millions of e-mails everyday.
Also, I would think that the conversion rate would be lower as well. I mean, with e-mail spam I can understand that a few people out of a million might see and open the message and decide to go to a company's buy whatever product the e-mail is selling. With cell phones, I don't really see the same thing happening as much. With e-mail, someone can click on a link and make an impulse buy in under 5 minutes. With cell spam, the person sees the message and then has to go out of their way to pursue the product.
You inhuman beast! Your second penalty is in direct violation of the Geneva Convention!
If you allow Britney Spears concerts to continue, then the terrorists have won.
All that is necessary for the triumph of good is that evil men do nothing.
For the last time, my girlfriend and I are both happy with the length of her penis already (zero inches by the way)! Stop sending her these messages!
I have a NTT DoCoMo cell phone, and although I use white listing to only allow the few people who actually have my private number to reach me, another form of spam goes on here that does not involve e-mail or text message.
Here seedy companies, usually based in Tokyo phone your number and hang up after 1 ring. They then bank on the fact that you will call them back figuring you missed an important call. The number that comes up on the display is for a pay per min, up front minimum charge service. When you don't pay, they actually send goons to get the money out of you.
Granted it is difficult to block numbers comming from a specific area code, especially if you live in that area. I fortunately do't live in the area where most of these calls come from, so seeing a different area code is a pretty good indication it is spam.
While white listing is a bit of a pain, and as others have pointed out may block important information you were not expecting from comming through, the amount of spam I was getting previous to turing it on was mental. something to the tune of 20 a day using a e-mail address on my phone that there is no way a name generator could come up with. I was limited to 25 characters for my name and I used a random set of numbers and letters as well as the few non-basic characters I was allowd to, and still within 20 min of setting up the account I had spam.
Now if only I could get a spam filter plugin for my phone things would be great, though I do believe the filter should be hosted on DoCoMo's end and configureable by myself.
flinging poop since 1969
In their usual way, Nigeria appears to be leading the way in the causes of spam, but in this case with a slight twist.
The difference is that a street preacher doesn't cost you money without your permission.
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?
Bah!
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
No, as far as I know, SMS spam is easier to block (by the network operators, not by the individual users) than e-mail spam.
The most important point here is that sending SMSs costs something (lower prices for bulk sending of SMS messages are offered, but the typical spammer's business model still won't work, even if they just have to pay ~5 cents per message, it's too expensive for spamming). Then, the fact that money has to be paid also helps identifying the source (as far as I know, the identification for billing cannot be forged, so the telephone companies can find out who spammed).
In many European countries, SMS has become absolutely indispensable (and a major source of profit for the telephone companies). I read that in the US (at least under certain circumstances) the recipient rather than the sender has to pay for SMS messages - that's really an idiotic arrangement. I think Americans should rather look how SMS has been implemented in other countries than contemplating to give it up and missing the huge advantages it offers (being able to deliver a message to someone who is too busy to pick up a phone, sending telephone numbers etc.).
I have been using SMS for many years (in Switzerland) and I don't think I have ever received SMS spam.
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!!
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.
Zaphod B
When duplication is outlawed, only outlaws will have