feLawsuit Claims Operators Of Two Adult Subscription Sites Sent Unsolicited Texts Linking To Porn

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No one likes getting spammed, but when you’ve got unsolicited text messages blowing up your phone with links to porn, it’s a lot harder to avoid than the pitches for fake Rolexes and male enhancement drugs that end up banished to your email’s spam folder. A lawsuit in Illinois that’s seeking class-action status claims the operators of two subscription adult entertainment sites spammed peoples’ phones with links to their sites, though the recipients never signed up for such texts in the first place.

In the lawsuit [PDF], the plaintiff says he and what he believes to be thousands of others have had their phones spammed by the companies behind sites called “Well Hello,” which is run by Smoochy Brands LLC and displays nudity while offering free registration for men interested in “casual sexual” encounters, and “Badoink,” operated by CM Productions LLC, a “subscription-based website featuring nondownloadable adult-themed photographs and videos.”

The complaint says the plaintiff (and the putative class) received a text message reading: “What does a girl have to do to get a guy to buy her a cup of coffee?, msg back on that site … Lily-F” that included a link. Clicking on the link leads users to a site that warns the link may contain “inappropriate content” or “spam or malicious code.”

Following the links will take users to the Well Hello site, the complaint says, which invites visitors to put in personal information and then search for matches on the site, as well as to register and subscribe with one of the three tiers of paid membership. Trying to go back in a browser will just bring users to other websites owned and operated by Smoochy and CMP that advertise other paid services, the lawsuit alleges.

The plaintiff says he and others that may be included in the lawsuit never gave express consent to receive said text messages, and alleges that the text campaign designed by Smoochy and CMP was sent “en masse to a list a list of thousands of wireless telephone numbers or randomly generated phone numbers.”

To do so, the complaint alleges that the companies used “equipment that had the capacity to store or produce telephone numbers to be called using a random or sequential number generator, and to dial such numbers.” In other words, porn robospammers.

All of this constitutes a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the complaint claims, which requires senders of SMS message advertisements for goods or services to obtain to obtain the recipient’s prior express written consent.

The plaintiff says he is not and never has been a member of any of the defendants’ sites, and says that by sending unsolicited text messages, the defendants caused the plaintiff and class members “actual harm” because one, it’s annoying to get text messages you don’t want, and two, some folks might have to pay their wireless carriers each time they receive a message, or have it count against a monthly allotment of texts.

The lawsuit is seeking an injunction “requiring Defendants to cease all unsolicited text message activities, an award of statutory damages to the Class members under the TCPA, and an award for damages for conversion, together with costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees.”

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist