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story category Verizon Wireless Sues
Accuses 51 individuals of sending unsolicited text messages
(old news - 04:16PM Friday Jul 23 2004)
tags: legal · wireless · spam
Verizon Wireless has filed, the first US lawsuit addressing wireless spam, against 51 individuals that exploited its wireless network to send millions of unsolicited text messages. Verizon has accused Jacob Brown, an employee of a Pawtucket outfit called The Phoenix Company, along with 50 unidentified "John Does" of violating a number of state and federal statutes, including the 2003 CAN-SPAM Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Verizon claims that the defendants transmitted approximately 4.5 million unsolicited electronic text messages, one million of which were actually delivered to subscribers' handsets, the remainder of which were filtered. The messages were sent in unpredictable bursts, beginning around early March and have continued since then, with nearly 800,000 text messages being sent in just one day in late May.

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Forums » Verizon Wireless Sues
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Post a:
Deacon
Clever Saying Goes Here
Premium,MVM
join:2001-12-13
DFW

1 edit

Good.

Hope they win, just as Microsoft has recently won some anti-spam suits...

arden625

join:2001-07-10
Haledon, NJ

Re: Good.

Dang straight!

DaveNJ
No Fear

join:1999-09-01
New Jersey

make him become a message screener

The punishement should be he has go to everyones phone and delete the message he sent, and give them 5$.

Logan 5
Wondering what happens next..
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-25
The WasteLAN

Can you hear me now Jacob Brown???

You're going to jail with bubba the prison pimp....:D

antiphishing
Phishing Scam Terminator
Premium
join:2004-06-09
Wilkes Barre, PA

Re: Can you hear me now Jacob Brown???

______________________________________________
you're going to jail with bubba the prison pimp
_______________________________________________

Don't laugh, stuff like this real happens at state and federal prisons. Scott Richter needs to board with Bubba.

Human Rights Website.
»www.hrw.org/reports/2001/prison/voices3.html
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PDXPLT

join:2003-12-04
Banks, OR

Re: Can you hear me now Jacob Brown???

said by antiphishing See Profile:
______________________________________________
you're going to jail with bubba the prison pimp
_______________________________________________

Don't laugh, stuff like this real happens at state and federal prisons. Scott Richter needs to board with Bubba.
Who's laughing? Everytime the little voice in my head tells me to consider cheating on my income taxes, I think of Bubba and decide, "nope".

antiphishing
Phishing Scam Terminator
Premium
join:2004-06-09
Wilkes Barre, PA

Re: Can you hear me now Jacob Brown???

_______________________________________________________________
Who's laughing? Every time the little voice in my head tells me to consider cheating on my income taxes, I think of Bubba and decide, "nope".
_____________________________________________________________

If everyone went that human right website and read what takes place in prisons then I would think it would deter many people from breaking the law.

After reading some of the accounts of what actual happens, I sure don't want to room with Bubba in the near future.
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Overdrive
Are You Where You Want To Be?
Premium
join:2001-05-31
Waterbury, CT

I have text messaging?

I was getting them and I had no idea how to send them.. heck I had no idea what mine was..

I had it shut off since they could not filter them. Also it was free for me to have the text messaging so there was no discount...

Verizion also charges .05 per message...for 4,500,000 that is $225,000.00 that they charged to customers.... that a pretty penny.
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cghh

join:2001-01-15
Milpitas, CA

Re: I have text messaging?

said by Overdrive See Profile:
Verizion also charges .05 per message...for 4,500,000 that is $225,000.00 that they charged to customers.... that a pretty penny.
The charge is $0.02/incoming message for all the Verizon Wireless rate plans I am familiar with. Or you can buy bundles of so many hundred per month.

Overdrive
Are You Where You Want To Be?
Premium
join:2001-05-31
Waterbury, CT

Re: I have text messaging?

said by cghh See Profile:
said by Overdrive See Profile:
Verizion also charges .05 per message...for 4,500,000 that is $225,000.00 that they charged to customers.... that a pretty penny.
The charge is $0.02/incoming message for all the Verizon Wireless rate plans I am familiar with. Or you can buy bundles of so many hundred per month.

ok.... $90,000.00 not so big for Verizon... but those do add up.
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Correrott

join:2001-12-24
Antelope, CA

I don't have Verizon, but can AT&T be sued?

3 times now they've sent me unsolicited advertisements via text messaging. Charged me .10 per message as well as a minute each in air time. Quite a profit while advertising their business.
--
Visualize Whirled Peas
veh

join:2003-04-05
San Francisco, CA

Re: I have text messaging?

If you have AT&T Wireless, there is no charge for incoming text messages but 10 cents each for sending. I receive messages every day (not from AT&T) and I don't get charged. Did you check your statements?

armitage

join:2004-01-04
philippines
·mydestiny cable

odd

living with sms as the normal medium of communication with regard to cel phones, 800,000 messages a day should have been felt right from the start... and it took them how long to figure it out? those messages were definitely not sent from a handset.

piece of advice to verizon, they should check their network security... coz no one sends 800,000 messages a day without being noticed, unless they got on something critical to send all those.

(but then again, in my country, sms IS the primary mode of communication on mobiles) SMS is a way of life to a lot of people here (think of 150 - 500 messages a day)....
--
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panth1
The Coyote

join:2000-12-11
Boca Raton, FL

Hmm

Any idea how they are sending these?
mjcrocket
Mjc

join:2000-12-02
Abingdon, MD

Re: Hmm

said by panth1 See Profile:
Any idea how they are sending these?

You can send these messages from any computer in world that has the capability to send e-mail. Every phone that has SMS has an e-mail address usually in the form of cell phone number @ cell phone company domain.

Limit the message to about 140 character or less and it goes right to the cell phone without any interaction at all by the cell phone company!

koitsu
Premium
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA

Interesting reading.


Davis Wolfgang Hawke
There's an interesting tidbit of information about Jacob Brown (covered in this article): rumour has it he works for a spamming company out of Rhode Island called "The Phoenix Company". Nothing surprising there...

...except when you read that the individual who owns the company is a neo-nazi by the name of Davis Wolfgang Hawke. The same individual has run ""companies"" by the names of "Quiksilver Enterprises" and "Amazing Internet Products".

I always love posting pictures of these folks, because, well, I think it's entertaining to put a face with a name. I'm still looking for photos of Jacob Brown...
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.

antiphishing
Phishing Scam Terminator
Premium
join:2004-06-09
Wilkes Barre, PA

Re: Interesting reading.

____________________________________________________________
I always love posting pictures of these folks, because, well, I think it's entertaining to put a face with a name. I'm still looking for photos of Jacob Brown...
_____________________________________________________________

Jacob Brown looks like a typical lowlife who sends out junk
email.
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CapinPete
Premium
join:2002-12-23
Loxahatchee, FL

FRY!!!

I hope they fry. Damn spammers!:D

technick
Premium
join:2000-12-16
Loganville, GA

idea

I have a great idea, instead of recommend that we fry the bastards, how about we get their personal information and have a field day with it.

antiphishing
Phishing Scam Terminator
Premium
join:2004-06-09
Wilkes Barre, PA

Verizon Wireless Sues

____________________________________________________________
along with 50 unidentified "John Does" of violating a number of state and federal statutes, including the 2003 CAN-SPAM Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
_____________________________________________________________

I wonder if one of the fifty people is Scott Richter?
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hedyd4u
Premium
join:2003-12-16
Schenectady, NY

Why not sooner?

Wouldn't they need to track down the spam or was he leaving an easy paper trail to be found. Verizon would not sue him till they had so much proof he has no chance to get away with it. What will be interesting is all the details involved in the investigation.

shadowshack
strange days
Premium
join:2000-09-04
Sewell, NJ

Despicible

Throw the book at them! They should be made to pay for the cost of every message sent and received, with interest, as well as the cost of Verizon's efforts to block them and track them down. Oh yeah, let's not forget all court costs, too. I hope they lose everything!
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elvey
Spamassassin

join:2001-02-17
San Francisco, CA

Re: Despicible

These spammers are seriously ****ed if they sent this to Californians. Califonia statute sets the statutory damages at $500 per SMS spam, IIRC.
Timt49

join:2004-01-19
Racine, WI

what ? me worry?

hell, u can always do like i did. i have no use for sms messenging. when i got a few unwanted commercial text messenges, i just called my provider and had the feature shut off on my number. of course now i can't download new ring tones or display backround pictures. but i haven't lost any sleep over it and i no longer get any unwanted messenges that i'll have to pay for.

Forums » Verizon Wireless Sues


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