The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has begun a federal court case against three companies for allegedly spamming Australian mobile users with unwanted SMS messages.
(Credit: ZDNet.com.au)
ACMA has alleged that Mobilegate Ltd, Winning Bid Pty Ltd and International Machinery Parts Ltd sent, or caused to be sent, SMS messages in order to advertise services such as "safe divert", a service to relay text messages, or to get money out of the mobile users via fake dating website profiles.
Members of dating websites were also allegedly given false information to encourage them to reply to SMS messages at a cost of up to $5 per message.
In addition, Mobilegate and Winning Bid allegedly sent SMS messages offering a fantasy chat service known as "Singles Club", "AU Singles" or "Australian Singles Online". The chat service also costs up to $5 per message.
ACMA said that anyone sending unsolicited SMS messages promoting goods or services or trying to gain money dishonestly from mobile users could face fines of $1.1 million per day for corporations and $220,000 for individuals.
ACMA said that it was seeking penalties from those involved as well as declarations, injunctions and other orders. The Authority also wants interim injunctions to prevent the alleged activities from continuing.
A directions hearing has been set for 6 February 2009. The defendants were unable to be contacted at the time of publication.
I managed to get about 4 Spam SMS messages back a while. The messages I received had no relation to what was advertised on the web, where I responded to a Google sponsored ad.
It is good to see that some of these companies are finally being back.
However, I think that Telstra, in my case, (and probably other phone companies) should also be taken to account and forced to refund payments for charges fraudulently submitted to customers' phone accounts. They have created a system which facilitates this fraud and should be held accountable.