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Verizon Wins Injunction Against Text Spammer

Posted by Zonk on from the seek-another-line-of-business dept.

bulled writes "CNet is running a story illustrating the US court system's ongoing harsh opinion about unwarranted communications of any kind. Verizon Wireless recently won a lawsuit against a company that was delivering massive numbers of spam text messages to its customers. Specialized Programming and Marketing and Henderson was ordered to pay more than $200,000 in damages to Verizon Wireless, some two years after Verizon filed the suit against the company. In 2005 Specialized Programming sent some 100,000 emails to Verizon phones. Verizon now has an injunction against the Marketing firm, another win for a company that has developed a reputation for going after spammers."

22 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. What about outbound spam? by winkydink · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Good job taking care of inbound spam, but whan will they do something about spam emanating from their networks?

    https://nssg.trendmicro.com/nrs/reports/rank.php?p age=1

    See #5.

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  2. what about the customers? by DJCacophony · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Thanks for stopping the spam, Verizon, but are you going to keep all those damages for yourself?

    --
    Slow Down, Cowboy! It's been 60 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment.
    1. Re:what about the customers? by TheMeuge · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Exactly.

      Where is the logic here - the company was ordered to pay $200'000 to Verizon, which already charged their customers $XXX for these text messages. So under the guise of "protecting their customers" they just made another wad of cash. I'll eat my shorts if they credit their customers for this.

    2. Re:what about the customers? by Jhon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah... that makes sense. However, is that cash in hand? Or would they be justified in keeping it as "damanges" for needing to address user complains/credits? I know two customers who spent time on the phone on more than one occation to get SMS credit due to spam. They got their money back, but Verizon spent "time/money" addressing/fixing their customer's problem.

      How much time/effort needs to be put in to determining who gets what?

    3. Re:what about the customers? by Scratch-O-Matic · · Score: 2, Funny

      If you can show that you received spam over the Verizon network during calendar year 2005, you will be eligible to receive a coupon for $5 off any qualified upgrade to your current service. Participating stores only. Two-year contract requirement may apply. Not applicable in conjunction with other settlements. Offer expires February 28th, 2007. Certain legal fees may be deducted from the $5 settlement amount; in some cases, if these fees exceed $5, a claimant may owe Verizon additional funds after a claim is filed. Offer not valid in CA, NC, MD, AK, HI, ND, SD, OH, OR, UT, ME, IA, FL, AL, or AZ.

      --


      Evil is the money of root.
  3. Seriously by Stokey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Specialised Programming and Marketing and Henderson

    SPaMaH!

    Surely that's too good to be true!

    --
    Natsu gusa-ya, Tsuwamono domo-ga, Yume no ato
  4. Irony. by garcia · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Clicking on a link and getting an unnecessary advertisement for Best Buy before being able to read the story.

    Also watching the number of FIOS broadband IP blocks that I have to ban skyrocket due to open proxies and SMTP spammers loving the large pipes.

  5. Unfortunately by Filip22012005 · · Score: 5, Funny

    $200,000 verizon dollars is only $2,000 US dollars...

    --
    When the policeman of the tie, rule you violate, hello punishment of the kitty?
  6. Sprint sends me SMS advertisements every day by gelfling · · Score: 4, Interesting

    About one in 10 SMS messages I get are from Sprint (I'm a Sprint customer) advertising a service, ringtone or some other downloadable. So excuse me while I don't feel Verizon's pain.

    1. Re:Sprint sends me SMS advertisements every day by blackdefiance · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you respond to one of those messages with "STOP" they'll opt you out. Sprint's policy is to have opt-out instructions in all outbound marketing SMS; if you call them to complain they'll generally take it pretty seriously.

      --

      circa75.com

  7. Letter by slapout · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dear Verizon,

        Can you please sue my carrier, Cingular*, for all the text messages they send me?

    Thanks

    * Cingular is soon to be part of AT&T, not the AT&T we all remember, but the new AT&T that was SBC until they renamed themselves AT&T after they bought what was left of AT&T after they ran themselves into the ground. Not to be confused with AT&T wireless, that was sold off to Cingular and them merged in with them.

    --
    Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
    1. Re:Letter by daeg · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I hate the spam I get from Cingular. I've called several times about it, replied back with "STOP" like they tell me to, all to no avail.

      Cingular even refuses to turn my text messaging off (I never use it, I hate text messages).

    2. Re:Letter by bendodge · · Score: 3, Informative

      According to the Federal Government, you are not required to give your SSN to anyone but the Federal Government (think IRS) and your employer.

      --
      The government can't save you.
    3. Re:Letter by jackbird · · Score: 2, Informative
      And your bank(s), brokerage, or any other place that pays you interest. And any entity that pays you as a consultant. And any of those entities' accountants.

      If you consult for small businesses, your SSN is laying around on W9 forms god knows where, protected by god knows who.

  8. HOWTO:Avoid Text Messaging Spam by wiredog · · Score: 2, Informative

    Have your cell carrier turn off text messaging on your account. Worked for me.

    --

    Best Slashdot Co
  9. Re:Good Job VZW by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 2, Interesting
    There's a simple solution that's been 100% effective for me: the National Do Not call registry

    A month after signing up, ALL for-profit telemarketing calls have stopped. The only ones that remain are the not-for-profit-beg-for-money-so-80%-can-go-to-the- telemarketing-company variety. While annoying, it's a lot less than it used to be.

    If they're calling your cell phone, that's against the law.

  10. Wait a minute! by jhfry · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Every time one of this spammer's messages hit my phone I was charged $0.10, and verizon is pursuing damages?... seems like Verizon is double dipping a bit.

    I wonder if they aren't "evil"!

    They could allow a spammer to operate for a significant period of time, increasing revenue from those of us who don't have text messaging on our accounts. Then they shut him down, and get royalties. Finally they look good in everyones eyes, when in reality they made a decent chunk of change for no real work.

    You can't tell me it's that difficult to determine where the messages came from... they probably could have shut him down sooner, but it wasn't worth the effort yet... mostly because they were not getting overwhelmed with calls to have text messaging charges dropped.

    Hmm... I so hate to be one of those conspiracy theorists.

    --
    Sometimes the best solution is to stop wasting time looking for an easy solution.
    1. Re:Wait a minute! by Adambomb · · Score: 2, Informative

      No tin-foil-hat brand for this one, Its widely accepted in canadian telecomm call centers (not mentioning any names) that this is EXACTLY the strategy behind most spam sms policies.

      Verizon just realized you can push PR at the same time as double dipping as you say =)

      --
      Ice Cream has no bones.
  11. Re:Good Job VZW by Aqua_boy17 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Interesting, thanks. We registered our home number when the do-not-call registry first went on line and I don't remember if they had an option for mobile numbers then. As to your second link, I think I knew this was illegal but what's your recourse when the offending number is blocked? Last time I tried calling Verizon, I was on hold for a very long time. Perhaps I'll try the website. Thanks again.

    --
    What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?
  12. Re:wait.. by LMacG · · Score: 2, Informative

    Mobile phone service and charges rarely make sense in the US. We are charged for making and receiving calls, for sending and receiving text messages, and in general most phones are completely locked down so they can only be used with the provider you bought the phone from.

    --
    Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
  13. Re:Question about Verizon text plans by winnabago · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does Verizon charge for inbound text messages? If so, how much?


    Yes, 2 cents from 2003-2005, 10 cents 05-07, and recently it was raised to 15 cents. That's .15 dollars, for those counting.

    It's really amazing that they do this. You can't set up blocks or even turn off messaging at the hardware level, so whatever gets sent, you get. It's most American providers though that do this, so it's not likely to change anytime soon.
    --
    Dammit Otto, you have lupus.
  14. The 10 Worst Spam Service ISPs by mopflite · · Score: 3, Informative

    Guess which ISP is ranked as the world's worst by The Spamhaus Project, in terms of "the few networks who, out of corporate greed or mismanagement, choose to be part of the problem"?

    http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/networks.lasso
    http://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/listings.lasso?isp=ver izon.com

    Before rushing to praise Verizon, consider that Verizon are knowingly and unrepentently hosting more of the world's hardcore spam operations than any other network, anywhere in the world.