Verizon Wireless Wins Case Against Cell-Phone Spammer

Published January 13, 2015

Verizon Wireless, the No. 2 U.S. mobile phone service, said on Wednesday it had won a permanent injunction to prevent a Florida company from sending unsolicited text messages to its customers phones.

Verizon Wireless said it filed a lawsuit against Passport Holidays of Ormond Beach, Florida in October after 98,000 spam text messages were sent to its customers' phones on behalf of Passport, which will pay $10,000 in damages.

Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications (VZ) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), said it would donate the money to charity.

According to Verizon, the spam messages informed customers via cell phone that they had won a cruise to the Bahamas and asked them to claim the prize.

The U.S. District Court in Trenton, New Jersey handled the case, according to Verizon.

Passport Holidays was not immediately available for comment.

U.S. cellphone providers, including Verizon Wireless, have recently been clamping down on companies that they believe are infringing on mobile phone users' privacy.

Verizon Wireless said it filed a complaint on Wednesday in the same court suing Specialized Programing and Marketing LLC, the company it said Passport Holidays identified as the sender of the spam messages.

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Specialized Programming.

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