Verizon Wireless today announced that it has won a permanent injunction against a Florida company it accused of sending spam SMS messages. Passport Holidays sent 98,000 spam text messages to Verizon Wireless subscribers. The company will also pay $10,000 in damages. Verizon Wireless is donating the money to charity.
According to Verizon the spam messages informed customers via cellphone they had won a cruise to the Bahamas and asked them to claim the prize.
Unlike email networks which are largely public, mobile carriers control and police their networks for spam. Because receiving text messages usually means a small charge to the subscriber, customers are not as willing to put up with SMS spam as they are with email spam.