New legislation to target text message spam

Every now and then, my cell phone will chirp in a certain way to tell me I have a text message. The only problem is, I never send text messages, and nobody ever sends them to me. Of course, text messaging is very useful, I just don’t have much need for it. So what is my cell phone doing telling me I have a text message? In every case, it’s an advertisement.

Now I have nothing against advertisements, and if it’s something I’m interested in, I want to see it. But, I don’t want to have to pay ten cents for the privilege. Nobody should. And in a corporate environment, where a company may be paying for dozens, or hundreds of cell phone accounts, text message spam can add up to a big extra expenditure in the cell phone line item.

This week, U.S. Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla) introduced a new piece of legislation called the m-SPAM Act. The legislation prohibits commercial text messages to wireless numbers that are on the Federal “Do Not Call” registry. The bill also gives more authority to the FCC and FTC to regulate the unwanted text message spam. The “Do Not Call” registry allows U.S. residents to place their phone numbers on a list, and solicitors are then not allowed to call. Until now though, there has been nothing to prevent spammers from sending out text messages to peddle whatever useless and overpriced thing they have on offer. The CAN-SPAM Act does not address text messaging.

Text message spam, besides being an annoyance, could potentially be dangerous, especially when sent to smartphone devices. It is conceivable that a text message could contain a virus or malicious software, or a link to a malicious Web site.