Feds Crack Down on Text-Messaging Spammers
By: NBC News
Updated: March 7, 2013
The Federal Trade Commission has gone to court to stop companies from allegedly bombarding cell phone users with hundreds of millions of unwanted text messages that promised "free" gift cards.
The FTC complaints, filed in courtrooms around the U.S., charge 29 defendants with sending more than 180 million of these spam texts.
"Today's announcement says 'game over' to the major league scam artists behind millions of spam texts," said Charles Harwood, acting director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection in a statement.
If you have a wireless phone, there's a good chance you got one. The text messages offer free $1,000 gift cards from big name companies such as Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy.
The FTC claims the texts were designed to get people to click on a link that would take them to deceptive websites that requested sensitive personal information - supposedly needed for shipping -before they could get that "free" card.
The commission suspects the information collected was sold to other companies for marketing purposes.
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