The Deadly Duo: Spam and Viruses, January 2007

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Courts are quick to come down on spammers using cellular networks to distribute spam. Verizon Wireless won a permanent injunction and default judgment against Specialized Programming and Marketing LLC and its owner, Charles Henderson. The two parties are required to pay damages in excess of $200,000 for the 100,000 unsolicited text messages sent to Verizon customers offering a prize vacation.

Other cell phone scammers include a couple sued for sending 5 million spam SMS (define) messages. Sophos warns of the costs of mobile spam. Consumers receive a message to call a number, which is often a premium-rate call.

In an annual report looking at 2006, Kaspersky Lab found a 41 percent increase in the number of malicious programs compared to 2005. Spammers started using graphical technologies or advanced existing technologies, including the use of image spam. And while courts are ruling on malicious spam and messages sent over mobile networks, the medium remains in an "initial assembly line stage of evolution," the report said.