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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
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.
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!
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?
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.