Verizon Wireless filed a lawsuit against Passport Holidays for SMS spamming its subscribers and announcing they had won a free cruise. Verizon is seeking financial compensation for damages and an injunction to force the Florida-based firm to stop sending the messages. Passport Holidays allegedly sent more than 100,000 unsolicited messages to VW subscribers, especially targeting the Northeast US. Many Verizon customers called in to complain about the spamming and Verizon Wireless claims that each call cost $6.50 to field.
This isn't the first time Verizon Wireless has taken an alleged spam company to court. In July of 2004 it sued a Rhode Island firm that had allegedly sent 4.5 million spam text messages to VW subscribers. Unlike emailed spam, most VW subscribers have to pay a fee for each text message received. The FCC seems to combat most mobile spam in the US, but the problem has proven crippling to some carriers overseas. Last year Japan's NTT DoCoMo had to cut off service to 2,173 phones because of mobile spam attacks.
To learn more about the spam lawsuit:
- see this article from MSNBC