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Verizon Fights Back Against Mobile Phone Spam

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the corporate-cheerleading-is-ok-this-time dept.

The Register is reporting that Verizon filed two separate lawsuits earlier this week against companies it claims spammed their customers with automated telemarketing calls. In addition to seeking a cease and desist, they are also apparently seeking "monetary damages."

28 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. phonetables by b100dian · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Please develop a filtering software w/ rules for phone numbers.
    I will configure it myself:)

    Just don't let anyone "Ping" me:)

    --
    gtkaml.org
  2. See? by Lord+Duran · · Score: 2, Funny

    Even big evil corporations hate spammers.

  3. Easy solution to phone spam... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Simply charge the sender the full rate to send the message..

    Well Duh!

    1. Re:Easy solution to phone spam... by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's what's being done in France and Belgium. But there's a simple reason why it works there and not in the US: it's easy for people to recognize a cell phone number. In France, a cellphone number starts with 06, in Belgium, a cellphone number has 10 digits instead of 9. This means that someone who dials such a number knows he's calling a cellphone number, and therefore knows he's gonna be hit with a higher rate.

      In the US, if you charged people more to dial a number that looks exactly like a landline phone number, you'd quickly have a slew of lawsuits from people who stayed on the phone for hours, only to discover it wasn't a normal phone number and they're broke or something. That's why the cost is shared in the US: the caller pays for whatever is normally paid to call a landline phone, and you pay the difference.

      --
      "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    2. Re:Easy solution to phone spam... by hattig · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Even simpler, just make messages (of any sort - SMS, MMS) sender-pays-all.

      Many home phones are getting this functionality as well, so even in the UK (Mobile numbers start 07) you can't guarantee in the long run that you will be messaging a mobile or a phone number, although when you are it will be obvious!

      That way you can still have your mobile number smushed into the rest of the nation's telephone number scheme, without paying however much to receive spam texts, and sharing the cost of telephone calls.

    3. Re:Easy solution to phone spam... by E8086 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "the caller pays for whatever is normally paid to call a landline phone, and you pay the difference."

      Close, the caller pays what they would pay if they called out of their area code which is why I agree with the other reply;

      "why not move the cell phone numbers to a separate area code then?"

      Happens enough when someone has a 'normal' line and a cell both in the same area code, one's a free local call but the other I have to pay for even if my 'normal' line bill says free calls in same area code. It would be nice to know which calls I'm going to have to pay for, it's not much but it might eventually add up to something. "Land-lines" can keep 636 and cell phones get 939.
      What's with having to pay for incoming calls? They use up your plan minutes yet you don't have any control over when someone calls you, yes you could always not answer, but someone will probably consider it rude. With the nice high monthly plans with extra long contracts you'd think there would be at least another option with "free nights and weekends" how about free nights or weekends and free incoming calls, I think a free same carrier calls option exists.

      As for the call spammers, they should be lined up and spammed with big cans of spam by the "can you hear me now?" guy, or a least a recording.
      whack...can you hear me now?...thud...can you hear me now?...ow!, my random body part...can you hear me now?

      Would this be considered "stealing" Verizon's bandwidth?

      --
      F7 doesn't work, ignore spelling and grammar
    4. Re:Easy solution to phone spam... by squiggleslash · · Score: 4, Informative
      I'm British, and I've moved to the US. Here's my take:

      For about $60 (including taxes), a mobile phone subscription in the US generally includes about 500 minutes (albiet with calls charged by the minute, not the second, and with you charged for listening to the other end ring, albeit only if the call is ultimately connected - this probably means that a comparable UK tariff would be 300-400 anytime minutes), unlimited nights and weekends, and (increasingly) unlimited in-network mobile to mobile calling. Calls that get diverted to voicemail are not charged for, either to the phone owner or the caller. Just as in the UK, a mobile on such a tariff can be used anywhere in the country and all minutes can be used to call anywhere in the country. Though, in this case, the country has five times the population and 100 times the square footage. That's generally the type of tariff most Americans subscribe to.

      There's a lot of experimenting with prepay here, and interestingly one direction they're going down is simply replicating these types of tariff as prepay tariffs rather than only offering pay-as-you-go. Despite a lot of interest in making it work, the "mobile pays" model really kills pay-as-you-go at the moment.

      To me, having gotten used to it, I have to say I'd rather have the American tariff than the (current) UK tariffs I've seen. It's essentially worry-free, I can completely - without impacting anyone else - replace my landline with a mobile phone (because friends and family are not hit with absurdly high charges when they call me, and because there are more minutes in my tariff than I can use in practice: it's almost an unmetered connection, especially when the social calls, the calls that go on for hours, are generally on the weekends anyway.) I don't feel like I could do that in the UK because you just don't get enough minutes, and because anyone calling you is going to have to pay through the nose to talk to you.

      The downside is that a lot of US employers expect you to give them your mobile number and (and this infuriates me) will call it in preference to your home number. The other downside is that pay-as-you-go, while available, just isn't terribly practical: the bar for getting mobile service is a little higher than it is in the UK.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  4. Monetary damages by FirienFirien · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How can they claim monetary damages? Presumably they got complaints from their clients - but their clients would have footed the support bill.

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    1. Re:Monetary damages by nacturation · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Punitive, not necessarily compensation.

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  5. Telemarketing is just another job by ReformedExCon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There are many jobs that very few people are willing to do because the pay and working conditions are so poor. Telemarketing is one of those jobs. But, as they say, you can't have a world full of doctors without an army of janitors. Someone's got to do the work that no one wants to do. And I sympathize with those people who have to choose between working a terrible telemarketing job and eating.

    If a telemarketing company is barred from using automated phone dialers to make calls, then they ought to be taken to task for it. I don't think any one will argue with that. But these companies typically have a couple dozen people on staff who can be trained to punch in phone numbers all day long, so it's not like they couldn't just do the same thing manually. In fact, I wish they would do it that way (it would get rid of that annoying split second of silence before you realize you've been caught).

    I'm lucky to have been able to avoid falling so low as to have to work one of those jobs, but there are many people who choose to do so. They aren't the ones who you ought to aim your rage at, but at the companies who hire them.

    --
    Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
    1. Re:Telemarketing is just another job by bloodredsun · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I thought that they were complaining about "pre-recorded messages" more than auto-dialers. The issues with auto-dialers is that it is illegal to use them to ring cell phones not normal ones. Using these two technologies together means that you can simultaneously call thousands at the same time with no worker involvement, obvously a huge boon to SPIT companies but a pain in the arse for everyone else. This could have a greater impact than spam as spam doesn't disturb me when my computer is off or intrude when I am at home.

      I don't know how it works elsewhere but in the UK, auto-dialers are allowed but with the restriction that if the person being dialed picks up and no one from the call centre makes the call live within 2 seconds then the call is dropped. This means that if you answer the phone and get a strange dead line, you know it's a telemarketer and you can happily put the phone down without having to convince them that you don't need double glazing/conservatory/new power supplier.

      And for the record, I once worked as a telemarketer for a business to business travel provider that only ever called during working hours and to people whose job it was to speak to me (and I dialed my own numbers - the company didn't like auto-dialers). Even then I didn't stick it long, as it was low paid and it did suck.

    2. Re:Telemarketing is just another job by Darkon · · Score: 4, Insightful


      Telemarketing is just another job

      You're telling me that scamming vulnerable and trusting elderly folks into buying stuff they don't need or making dodgy investments is 'just another job'?

    3. Re:Telemarketing is just another job by pintomp3 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      you're right. same goes for those in organized crime. they are simply trying to make a living. if not them, then the crime bosses would hire someone else. /sarcasm funny thing is, you're not even making them out to be like meter-maids, which is an argument with a case. you are making them out to be garbagemen or something that society can't do without. perhaps you need to be interrupted during dinner with sales pitches, but most people can do without this service. i think you need a little more reform.

    4. Re:Telemarketing is just another job by ben_rh · · Score: 3, Funny

      And I sympathize with those people who have to choose between working a terrible telemarketing job and eating.

      I don't see how this choice could ever arise, but I for one would take the meal and run.

  6. earlier this week by frovingslosh · · Score: 3, Funny
    earlier this week ????

    We have a credability problem here.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  7. Where do they get their numbers? by xiando · · Score: 2, Informative

    Just a reality check for anyone who thinks there is such a thing as "Free SMS services" on the Internet: If you are offered something "free" on the Internet where you have to give away your mobile phone number then you can pretty much be sure that you WILL be paying a price in the form of spam. There is no thing as a free lunch...

    --
    9/11: Never forget it was a false-flag operation
  8. I wish... by connah0047 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wish I had to deal with phone spam instead of bad service. I signed a two year contract with Verizon and all I say on my phone all the time is, "Can you hear me now?" ...guess you can't sue them for false advertising.

  9. And presumably by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 3, Funny

    In addition to seeking a cease and desist, they are also apparently seeking "monetary damages."

    Verizon will certainly redistribute the "monetary damages" to spammed customers, right? </sarcasm>

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  10. It's not just Verizon customers... by DeathAndTaxes · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I got a phone call that was automated and in spanish about 2 weeks ago. I googled the number and came up with this page:

    http://www.payphone-directory.org/discussion/sub2. html

    Its not just Verizon customers. I can only hope that I (as a Sprint customer) receive some sort of "umbrella" benefit from this.

  11. Re:If only European operators did this.. by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is less common in the UK because it costs more to call mobiles than land lines, and less of an irritation because it costs nothing to receive a 'phone call or text. If it is irritating you register with the TPS and you have legal recourse against anyone 'phoning to with unsolicited sales or marketing calls. Unsolicited commercial SMS is already illegal under the Privacy and Electronic Communications EC Directive, and so you already have legal recourse there.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  12. Auto Dialer exceptions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Apparently
    "calls from companies with which you have an established business relationship" are allowed by automatic dialers...

    http://www.dmaconsumers.org/telephoneconsumerprote ctionact.html

    1. Re:Auto Dialer exceptions by pintomp3 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The part of i wonder about is how far can you stretch an "established business relationship". i bought something from you or the company you used to be or the a company you are related to years ago? how do i end this relationship? it's like getting calls from some drunken one-night-stand, her sisters, and her kids for rest of your life (no, u'r not the father).

  13. Eh? by squoozer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Ok, I must be missing sonething here. I haven't RTA (sorry) but how can Verizon sue the spammers? If the spammers are paying to send the messages then they are at worst in breach of their contract with Verizon? If they aren't paying to send the messages then thats a whole different ball game and surely there must be some form of criminal activity going on. In which case the police should be involved.

    I hate spam in all it's forms but I can't help feeling this is like the mail service suing junk mail producers.

    --
    I used to have a better sig but it broke.
  14. Mobile phone scamming -- no limits by martijnd · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I (loc: Taipei) regular receive the weirdest phonecalls on my mobile, people have tried to:

    • Borrow me money (several) ["do you have a credit problem", we at borrow 50% no questions asked"]
    • Tried get my address in return for free gifts ["now free handbook to Hong Kong Disneyland"]
    • Told me my son had been kidnapped, and that I should transfer money by bank (sidenote; thankfully I have no son)
    • I could earn lots of money by just going to a cash machine and entering a few numbers (various versions, "tax refund" application, immediate money return "investment" ,...)

    Most people I know & work with get these calls, and of course its usually elderly who fall for these scams. The kidnap story scares the hell out of anyone who gets it.

    Most cash machines have warning stickers against these kind of practices. Its all psychology of course, it works wonderfully with fear & greed.

    Massive thefts of private information (banks have lost all credit card info through employee heft) make it possible to "personalise" these stories. (Its sounds damned real if they have your bank account number)

    Volume is about 3-4 calls per person per week, so with 23 million mobile phones you'd figure somebody would notice these calls.
  15. I love unsolicited calls by Gordonjcp · · Score: 3, Funny

    I try to get as many as I can. Of course, some organisations are wise to the fact that the number I've given them is a 50p/minute premium rate number that terminates at my own Asterisk server, but other than that, I could happily chat to them all day.

  16. I like the spam ... don't get many calls by almound · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's what I bought a cell phone for, actually. Don't take it away!

  17. Re:If only European operators did this.. by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 2, Informative

    Presumably they report the offenders as they have broken the law - text spam is illegal in the UK.

  18. Text-Spammer SMS.ac gets away with it. by Stitch_Surfs · · Score: 4, Informative

    Perhaps the worst violater of sending unsolicited SMS messages is the company SMS.ac out of San Diego, California.

    They've got a track record of trcking users into giving up their passwords to AOL and Hotmail accounts and then using the addresses those accounts contain to send messages to your friends and family that appear to have been sent by the unsuspecting victim. In one case Joi Ito was compromised and when he pubilshed his troubles on his blog they threatened him with legal action!

    A search on Technorati http://technorati.com/search/sms.ac%20complaints will reveal an astonishing number of people that have been victimized by this company.

    If you haven't heard about this, you really should take a few minutes to check out the scam. The lure is free sms messages...they claim 5 per day, but what happens is shortly after you sign up you begin receiving "friend requests" not dozens, but four or five a day. This doesn't seem like much but if your premium sms charge is 0.50 and you get 5 per day times 30 days per month well...most people on /. can handle that math.

    I signed up to do an investigation for my blog and discovered some support for the complaint that these "friend requests" are company originated. Over the course of 3 months I had probably at least half a dozen requests by different screen names with the same photos as well as multiple requests by the same screen name.

    Now if there are the millions of members they claim, what are the odds of two people scraping the same images? And of course two different people with the same screen name is an impossibility.

    Adding insult to injury (I mean besides the couple hundred bucks I shelled out to verify this) the company actually had the audacity to post a "Cellular Bill of Rights" in my opinion, this is like the fox being left to guard the chickens.

    Of course unlike Voice Spammers that are paying to place and terminate their calls, the folks at SMS.ac obviously aren't paying much if anything. Complicit in this, though to what degree they're aware of the issue is Qpass http://qpass.com/ and their m-Qube system for non-operator originated mobile wallet billing.

    Personally, I believe enough complaints to Qpass would put a dent in SMS.ac's evil ways. Believe me, they are evil. People lose their phones over this, and it's the one's that can't afford it...kids that didn't know any better who get hurt. Read the complaints for a while and you'll be as indignant as I was when I wrote about their Cellular Bill of Rights http://technorati.com/search/sms.ac%20complaints

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