Verizon Wireless has filed a lawsuit against
Pennsylvania-based Money Warehouse, Inc. (doing business as All State
Mortgage Lender) and other John Does alleging they sent at least
800,000 wireless spam messages promoting mortgage products to Verizon
Wireless customers and employees beginning in February 2009.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Trenton,
N.J., alleges these unsolicited messages were sent using an autodialer
to randomly-generated numbers in violation of the Federal Telephone
Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits the use of an autodialer to
call wireless phones.
"At a time when many Americans are concerned about making their
mortgage payments, these types of unwanted text messages, from unknown
senders, can be upsetting," said Steven E. Zipperstein, vice president
and general counsel at Verizon Wireless. "Our company will continue to
work diligently to stop these people who break the law and harass our
customers."
Text messaging represents an increasingly important tool used by
wireless customers to stay in touch with colleagues, friends and
family, as well as by public safety and emergency medical services
personnel across the country. Verizon Wireless customers exchanged 127
billion text messages in the fourth quarter of 2008, 18.2 billion more
than the previous quarter, for an average of more than 1 billion per
day.
Wireless spam may hinder the delivery of legitimate messages, and
because spam is often sent in high volume over short periods of time,
it can place a strain on the overall performance of the wireless
network.
Since 2004, Verizon Wireless has brought nearly 20 lawsuits against
wireless spammers, telemarketers and pretexters, and the company's
record of protecting customer privacy puts it at the forefront of the
U.S. wireless industry. Verizon Wireless has won permanent injunctions
against individuals and companies that have engaged in illegal
telemarketing or wireless spamming to Verizon Wireless customers, and
against those who have attempted to obtain information about Verizon
Wireless customers to sell to third parties. On behalf of its
customers, Verizon Wireless has donated tens of thousands of dollars to
domestic violence prevention and law enforcement organizations as a
result of these settlements.