It’s hard enough coping with all that spam clogging our computers. Now it’s stalking us on our cell phones.
Spam has gone mobile. Increasingly, consumers answer their cell phones thinking it’s important. Instead, it turns out to be a telemarketer peddling time-share resorts, bogus lotteries or even porn.
While computer e-mail spam is just a pain, unsolicited text messages on your cell phone can be costly — 10 cents or more per message.
The problem is so new that federal agencies still are unsure how bad it is or how to combat it. But they say clearly that with millions of new cell-phone users and literally billions of text messages tapped out monthly, the annoyance is growing.
San Francisco-based Ferris Research, which tracks consumer messaging services, predicts U.S. cell-phone users will get 1.1 billion spam messages in 2007 — up from 800 million last year.
“As more and more people get cell phones, they are dealing with all sorts of products, services and consequences,” said Lisa Hone, an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer protection bureau.
Wireless officials say they have learned from the experience of the computer industry and are taking aim at mobile spam. But the problem is that it’s a moving target.
“It is a constant and ever-changing threat,” said Joe Farren, a spokesman for CTIA-The Wireless Association, which represents the wireless industry. “As we develop new filters and firewalls, the spammers seek to develop new strategies as well. So it is an arms race of sorts.”
Illegal operators often use automatic dialers. Spammers sitting at a computer can zap millions of calls addressed to random cell-phone numbers. At the same time, cell-phone numbers are illegally bought and sold on Internet sites that are started up as fast as they are shut down.
In April, Verizon Wireless sued telemarketers it said “inundated” the company with 12,022,411 unsolicited commercial text messages. Verizon said in its lawsuit it was able to block all but 4,618.
Still, the barrage not only hit customers with “unwanted charges,” but also clogged Verizon’s networks, requiring the carrier to “dedicate equipment, software and personnel” to filter out the messages.
Spokeswoman Debra Lewis said the company was “using everything in our arsenal” to stop the spammers.
“We stop most of it, but some still goes through,” Lewis said, adding, “People aren’t expecting it, because a cell phone is a private number.”
Indeed, the expectation of privacy — cell phones are not part of any directory — is a big reason for the explosion in cell phones.
Today, more than 233 million cell phones are in use — more than double the number in 2000. Text messaging is the fastest-growing feature. Since last year, Verizon users more than doubled their text messaging from 12 billion to 28.4 billion.
Among young adults between 18 and 26, the preference for text messaging has made e-mail the equivalent of snail mail. Text messaging is used to play games, vote on TV reality show contestants, register political preferences and check news headlines, weather and movie times.
But it is also used by legitimate businesses to reach subscribers and by first responders to communicate in emergencies, pointed out Sprint spokeswoman Roni Singleton.
“It’s a service and a convenience and in some cases a vital communication tool,” Singleton said. “That is why it is so critical to make this a matter of priority.”
Sprint also sleuths for dishonest marketers and helps find ways for subscribers to block unwanted text senders, she said.
The phenomenon of cell-phone spam was not even contemplated when the federal do-not-call laws passed, and regulatory agencies have had to scramble to protect consumers.
In 2004, the Federal Communications Commission voted to ban all unauthorized text messages to mobile phones and pagers. The FCC also now applies the Telephone Consumer Protection Act — which prohibits autodialed and prerecorded calls to cell phones — to text messages. FCC guidelines now say text-based telemarketing solicitations sent to cell phones are covered by the national do-not-call rule.
While some states also are trying to erect regulatory barriers, experts say some legitimate businesses do not want too many hurdles in the way of legally cashing in on the potentially profitable cell-phone advertising market.
Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL are just a few of the major online companies searching for ways to reach cell-phone users with mobile ads. Using global positioning technology, companies could deliver tantalizing pop-up ads to cell-phone users when they are within blocks of, say, a McDonald’s.
“It’s too lucrative an opportunity,” said Allan Keiter, founder and president of MyRatePlan, an online site that monitors cell-phone carriers.
Pop-up ads would be delivered only with a cell-phone user’s consent. Keiter predicted, however, that consumers could be enticed with the promise of cheaper cell service subsidized by commercials.
“Advertisers are champing at the bit,” he said.
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