A mobile spammer in the US has been ordered to pay
damages to a mobile operator for sending 100,000 messages to its
customers.
Verizon Wireless filed a suit against
Specialized Programming and Marketing and its owner, Charles
Henderson, who sent the spam messages offering a prize cruise in
the Bahamas on behalf of Passport Holidays.
In sending the unsolicited text messages to mobile phones,
Henderson and his company violated the US Federal Telephone
Consumer Protection Act and are required to pay damages in excess
of $200,000 (£106,000).
Passport Holidays was required to pay $10,000 in damages to
Verizon Wireless in a separate judgment last year.
"Misguided companies may be tempted to exploit modern technology
in an attempt to get marketing messages in front of their potential
audience, but spamming mobile phones is not acceptable," said
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for internet security
software firm Sophos.
He said, "SMS text spam is a tiny problem compared to
conventional e-mail spam, but it is growing. Users should report
SMS abuse to their phone network providers and think carefully
before acting upon unsolicited text messages," said Cluley.
Charles Henderson, his company Specialized Programming and
Marketing, and Passport Holidays are now prohibited from sending
text message spam to Verizon Wireless customers, according to the
judgement.
This is not the first incidence of text spammers being brought
to book. In January this year, a Florida couple was sued for
sending five million spam messages to cell phones advertising
timeshares.
Messaging insecurity fuels data leakage
fears
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