Big fine handed down for mobile spamming
Source: ZDNet UK
Sending out unsolicited text messages that misled mobile users to believe they had won a £500 prize proves to be rather expensive
A company that sent large numbers of unsolicited text messages to mobile phone users telling them they had won a mystery prize worth £500 has been fined £50,000 by the premium rate services regulator.
ICSTIS, the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services, announced on Thursday that it was fining Moby Monkey, and barring it from continuing the promotion.Over 200 people complained to ICSTIS after receiving the text message, which urged them to call a £1.50-per-minute premium rate telephone number. Those who made the call discovered, after several minutes, that the mystery prizes were holiday discount vouchers that were subject to various terms and conditions.