Verizon Suing The Pants Off Of SMS Scammers

Have you ever been annoyed by SMS spam that attempts to convince you to pay for new Paris Hilton ringtones or something else you probably don't want? It appears that Verizon Wireless has too, as they have filed a federal lawsuit outlining a fraudulent SMS scheme that targeted its customers.
Among the violations that the scammers allegedly performed on Verizon customers:

• misappropriating approved short codes for unapproved “shadow” campaigns that did not comply with Verizon Wireless’ consumer protection and disclosure policies
• blocking certain IP addresses from accessing the websites associated with these shadow campaigns
• re-directing visitors to shell websites, preventing Verizon Wireless and its auditors from finding the shadow campaign websites in the normal course of monitoring Premium SMS campaigns for compliance

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7941913539976977986#editor/target=post;postID=1876466050633690581

Customers who think they might have been on the receiving end of this scheme and think they might be entitled to a refund can visit www.premiumsmsrefunds.com to get the full scoop.

Since 2004, Verizon has brought over 20 lawsuits against similar wireless spammers. While these suits aren't likely to do much in terms of the larger picture of SMS spamming and scamming, perhaps some will take note that there may be consequences - especially when the perpetrators haven't crossed all of their t's and dotted their i's from a legal perspective.