Senate bill could ban SMS spam

Spam is an unfortunate reality that we all have to deal with. If you’re lucky, you won’t have to deal with with too much spam hitting your SMS text message inbox. SMS spam is a big problem in the US. So bad, in fact, that a new bit of legislation has hit the Senate floor with the potential to dramatically reduce SMS spam messages.

Congress passed the CAN-SPAM Act in 2003, which banned the sending of emails to mobile phones. But, that left the door open to SMS-based spam messages. As the number of spam text messages continues to grow, many wireless subscribers are picking up the tab. Concerned that mobile customers are getting charged upwards of 20 cents for each incoming message, a couple of Senators have introduced a bill that would prohibit the sending of commercial text messages to wireless customers listed in the FTC’s Do Not Call list. This new legislation would explicitly ban spammy text messages from hitting cellphones, a provision that the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 failed to outline.

As annoying as email-based spam messages are, spam text messages are potentially more problematic than email spam ever was. Because spam SMS is delivered directly to the mobile phone, it has the potential to invade and disrupt our personal lives, not to mention the potential to cost customers big money.

[Via: eWeek]