The Federal Communications Commission has published a list of Websites the commission says conduct spam – e-mail and text messaging alike – to cell phones, answering a need outlined by the controversial CAN-SPAM Act.
The FCC said sites or domains on the list have thirty days to stop allowing spam transmission unless the recipients gave permission to receive a given spam message and the sites or domains can prove it.
“In 30 days, it will be illegal to send commercial messages to individuals at addresses that include any of those domain names – unless the subscriber has given prior express authorization for such messages from specific companies,” the FCC said announcing the list, which they said was compiled with considerable help from wireless service carriers.
“The prohibition applies only to ‘commercial’ messages as they are defined in FCC rules, but not to what are considered ‘transactional or relationship’ messages, such as those sent to customers about product safety or security information, those to facilitate an existing commercial transaction, and notification about changes in terms, features, or the customer’s account status,” the agency added.
The FCC in August 2004 adopted new rules to protect consumers from cell phone spam. The agency held that setting up a list of suspect domain names looked like the best way to let cell subscribers duck unwanted wireless spam.
CAN-SPAM in over a year of enforcement has produced a tiny handful of high-profile cases and a wide volume of analysis and criticism saying that the law does nothing genuine to stop spam because its lack of an opt-in provision still lets spammers get to recipients at least once.
And, according to such critics – including antispam group Spamhaus, which has called the law the YOU-CAN-SPAM Act – once is still more than enough for those recipients to continue getting flooded with spam.
