Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has sent a clear
message to would be SMS spammers intending to scam unsuspecting mobile
phone users looking for love and social contact. ACMA has already
closed down three spam operations pending a court case.
The three companies involved, Mobilegate Ltd,
Winning Bid Pty Ltd and Jobspy Pty Ltd have all been accused of
breaching the Spam Act by sending unsolicited SMS messages to users
with the aim of getting them to reply using premium rate mobile numbers.
The alleged spammers would then pocket the proceeds from their targets
as well as harvesting their contact details for future scams.
According to ACMA, many of the targets were obtained through setting up
fictitious profiles on dating and social networking websites.
The Federal Court of Australia has granted interlocutory orders in
relation to ACMA’s proceedings against Mobilegate, Winning Bid, Jobspy
and individuals associated with the companies.
ACMA alleges,
among other things, that Mobilegate, Winning Bid and International
Machinery Parts (now deregistered) sent or caused unsolicited SMS
messages to be sent to Australian mobile telephone numbers via the
premium rate telephone shortcode 19773366, 19910006 and/or 19724253 for
the purpose of:
* offering to supply, advertise or promote a
service known as ‘Safe Divert’, which was marketed as a text relay
message service, or ‘Maybemeet’; and/or
* by deception, through the use of fabricated dating profiles,
to dishonestly obtain a financial advantage or gain from Australian
mobile telephone account holders.
ACMA also alleges that
misleading or deceptive representations were made to members of dating
websites in contravention of the Trade Practices Act 1974. These
representations were designed to entice the recipient to reply to SMS
messages at a cost of up to five dollars per message.
Orders
made in relation to Winning Bid, Simon Anthony Owen, Tarek Andreas
Salcedo and Glenn Christopher Maughan, require, among other things,
that the respondents refrain from:
* creating, submitting or registering fictitious profiles on dating websites or social networking websites;
* posting or otherwise publishing photos or other images of
individuals on dating websites or social networking websites without
first obtaining the permission of those individuals to do so;
* communicating with users of dating websites or social networking websites on those websites through fictitious profiles.
Winning
Bid was further ordered to remove or otherwise deactivate fictitious
profiles on dating websites or social networking websites it has
registered or placed on those websites.
Consent orders were also obtained from Jobspy and Scott Mark
Moles to the effect that, amongst other things, they also be restrained
from creating, submitting or registering profiles on dating websites
and social networking sites; posting photos or images of individuals on
any website without permission; or communicating with users of dating
or social networking sites.
The first respondent, Mobilegate,
did not oppose orders proposed by ACMA which were in similar terms to
those made by consent in relation to Jobspy.
The interlocutory
order was granted on 22 May 2009, subject to the court making final
orders following the hearing of the matter. A date for the final
hearing has yet to be set.
"This is an important case for the Australian Communications and Media Authority’, said Chris Chapman, ACMA Chairman.
"We want to get the message out that the Spam Act applies to more than
just email … it applies to all commercial electronic messages, which
very much includes SMS."
David Bass
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