Hats off to the US Federal Trade Commission. The agency, which has been going medieval on spammers<\/a> for some time now, has effectively declared war on anyone who has the audacity to think that an email address or cell phone number is an invitation to knock on your door. In March, the FTC filed eight separate complaints against 29 companies and individuals, and with the salvo fired in those cases, the federal watchdog bared its snarling teeth. Those cases involved more than 180 million spam messages, and that cost people money, because 12 percent of the targeted users weren\u2019t subscribed to a text messaging plan.<\/p>\n

What makes these messaging campaigns so evil and dastardly is that, unlike some marketing spam campaigns, which are legit, albeit annoying, these individuals and companies weren\u2019t selling anything; rather they were offering free prizes if users jumped through a series of hoops that required providing their personal information. In some cases, the victims had to sign up for as many as 13 offers before the journey was complete. Yes, oozing sleaziness isn\u2019t the only thing these guys are good at. They\u2019re also good at collecting and selling information, and the FTC awarded their proficiency with a big ol\u2019 lawsuit, and this past Tuesday, the FTC announced that it had reached an agreement with one Florida company and its two top executives, according to The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The company in the case is known as Rentbro, and its two principles, Daniel Pessin and Jacob Engel, both of Fort Lauderdale, are the players in this tragic comedy. According to the NYT, \u201cMessages sent by the company had promised free gift cards worth up to $1,000, the commission said, but when consumers tried to visit a Web site to collect the prize, they were instead connected to a site that asked for personal information, like Social Security numbers and credit card numbers. It also required them to pay for additional services to receive a gift card.\u201d The Times reports that the company and owners were ordered to turn over all of their remaining assets and in a partially suspended order, repay up to $377,321, the amount that the company had bilked out of its unsuspecting targets.<\/p>\n

The FTC\u2019s own website discusses the legal action<\/a>, explaining that the Rentbro case \u201cis part of the FTC\u2019s continuing crackdown on spam text messages and the settlement prohibits the defendants from sending unwanted texts to consumers, and from misleading consumers about whether they have won gifts or prizes and whether a product is \u201cfree\u201d or without cost or obligation. Amen, FTC. Amen. You just made it on our Christmas card list.<\/p>\n

The message was your standard \u2018I\u2019m going to give you something, really, all you need to do is click,\u2019 sort of spam. According to the FTC, \u201ca typical message stated, \u2018Your entry in our drawing WON you a FREE $1,000 Target Giftcard!  Enter \u2018312\u2019 at www.target.com.tgrz.biz to claim it and we can ship it to you immediately!\u2019 The hyperlink included in the text message brought consumers to a website the defendants created to reinforce the deceptive gift card message and then to a variety of third-party websites where consumers were asked to submit personal information under the guise of claiming their gift cards.  After collecting consumers\u2019 personal information, consumers were told they had to sign up for more than a dozen risky trial offers, none of which was free, to qualify for the promised \u2018free\u2019 gift card.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rentbro\/Pessing\/Engel case is the second settlement in the ongoing crackdown by the FTC. This is a huge win for those of us who need the madness to end. People are getting robbed, infected, and generally bothered by these crooks and scam artists, and the ongoing debate over what\u2019s legitimate spam and what\u2019s not just gets muddier when you have companies acting as if they\u2019re not doing anything wrong, and all the while they\u2019re skimming profits off others through questionable techniques. Spam, whether it\u2019s sent by email, SMS, social media, or some other delivery mechanism, is still spam.<\/p>\n

And while countries like Canada suffer from the chronic inaction<\/a> of its government worthy of a website \u00e0 la Dog Shaming<\/a>, the US is moving forward in the war, sending the message to spammers that their activities will not be profitable. Charles A. Harwood, Acting Director of the FTC\u2019s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said it best when the agency filed its charges back in March. \u201cToday’s announcement says \u2018game over\u2019 to the major league scam artists behind millions of spam texts.\u201d Noble? Yes. Awesome? Hell, yes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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