The Federal Court has today imposed $2 million in penalties against Scott Gregory Phillips in proceedings brought by ACMA regarding SMS spam, aka speam. That penalty is in addition to $22.25m imposed on seven other respondents last year in Australian Communications & Media Authority v Mobilegate Ltd A Company Incorporated in Hong Kong (No 2) [2009] FCA 887, bringing the total penalties to $24.25m.
Phillips, along with the other respondents, was involved in a complicated scheme involving creation of established fake dating website profiles to obtain the mobile phone numbers of genuine dating website users. Those numbers were then sent messages from people pretending to want to chat via a 'Safedivert' service about meeting and forming a relationship. Users who were unfortunate enough to be tricked by that identity scam were charged approximately $5 per message, with ACMA alleging that the scheme cost Australian mobile users over $4m from late 2005 until November 2008.
Logan J, in delivering judgment, indicated that -
The conduct was undoubtedly deliberate. IMP and its agent Jobspy, which employed IMP's modus of operation, engaged in concerted deception. Mr Phillips' involvement in the deception was at the most senior level. He was the controller of IMP.ACMA chair Chris Chapman commented that -
The size of the penalties awarded in this case are an indication of how seriously the courts treat breaches of the Spam Act, which is very encouraging.
In cases such as this where the conduct was calculated, deceptive and had a detrimental effect on Australian phone users, the ACMA will not hesitate to use every available avenue to protect the consumer. This prosecution again demonstrates the commitment of the ACMA to ensure that individuals and companies comply with the Spam Act.
