[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 56 (Thursday, April 2, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4319-S4320]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. SNOWE (for herself and Mr. Nelson, of Florida):
  S. 788. A bill to prohibit unsolicited mobile text message spam; to 
the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today, along with Senator Bill 
Nelson, to introduce legislation that would curb a growing nuisance 
that millions of wireless customers experience on a daily basis--
unsolicited text messages or mobile spam.
  Spam has long been loathed by email users around the world. It is for 
good reason--percent of all email sent worldwide is considered spam, 
which means close to 200 billion spam messages are sent every day. The 
vast majority of the spam sent on the Internet is done so illegally 
through the use of botnets, which are ``networks'' of hijacked or 
compromised computers. One botnet, Srizbi, which consists of more than 
450,000 compromised PCs is able to send on average more than 60 billion 
spam messages per day. Many of these spam messages include viruses, 
malicious spyware, or are phishing attacks.
  With more data functionality and improved user interfaces with 
wireless devices, it is expected that mobile spam will grow over the 
next several years. Those viruses and malware that are so prevalent on 
a user's computer could

[[Page S4320]]

and most likely will show up on their cell phones through m-spam. So a 
very significant threat to wireless users looms.
  While the FCC and the FTC have adopted rules to prohibit sending 
unwanted commercial e-mail messages to wireless devices without prior 
permission, text messages are not covered by their rules so it is not 
having the desired effect of deterring distribution of mobile spam, let 
alone email spam. The m-SPAM Act would provide more government 
attention to this growing problem and makes modifications to existing 
law in order to improve efforts to restrain mobile spam--before it 
becomes more than an annoyance.
  More text and voice spam are steadily invading handsets. Wireless 
users in the U.S. received more than 1.1 million spam text messages in 
2007, up 38 percent from 2006. Mobile spam not only clutters a wireless 
user's inbox, but it also unduly increases the monthly wireless bill--
wireless subscribers typically are charged for sending and receiving 
text messages--sometimes as much as 20 cents per message.
  Some telephone companies have been proactive in preventing spam--
wireless carriers already block up to 200 million unsolicited text 
messages per month, but many times the senders cannot be located and 
brought to justice without Government help. In May 2007, Verizon 
Wireless sued telemarketers that had inundated the company with more 
than 12 million mobile spam messages. The carrier was able to block 
most of them but the inundation still hit consumers with unwanted 
charges and the carrier with a congested network. So more can be done 
to prevent this aggravating practice and relieve consumers of having to 
resolve these charges on their bills. Even the wireless industry 
recently has urged government to do more to catch and prosecute 
spammers.
  That is why I sincerely hope that my colleagues will join Senator 
Bill Nelson and me in supporting this critical legislation.
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