Even as fellow U.S. carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint have pledged to stop charging for "premium" texts, Verizon has refused to stop charging for spammy SMS, also known as premium SMS (PSMS).
According to Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell, who has been working with attorney generals of other states to stop spam text messages from third parties, the carriers (apart from Verizon) will not levy a charge anymore for "premium short messaging service" or PSMS.
PSMS is the main reason behind unauthorized charges that pop-up on mobile phone bills and the practice is often called "mobile cramming," which is anticipated to cost Americans $2 billion per year.
PSMS includes text-based sport score alerts, trivia, horoscopes, daily jokes, weather alerts etc. Per Sorrell, PSMS constitute an "overwhelming majority" of cramming complaints and third-party charges.
"While PSMS has some benefits, like charitable giving, it is also a major contributor to the current mobile cramming problem," said Sorrell in a statement. "We are pleased that AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile have decided to stop the flow of money from the pockets of ordinary people to the bank accounts of scam artists. We're hopeful the other carriers will soon follow their lead."
Verizon's general counsel William B. Peterson said that "while we don't agree with all of the Attorney General's allegations, we respect his efforts in this area."
"For years, Verizon has been vigilant in protecting our customers from bad actors. There have been numerous times we have terminated programs and in some cases have taken aggressive legal action in order to ensure our customers were protected," said William B. Peterson, Verizon's general counsel in a statement. "Since premium messaging was first introduced, technology advances and smartphone adoption have dramatically changed the way customers access information. Verizon had previously decided to exit the premium messaging business because of these changes as well as recent allegations that third parties have engaged in improper conduct in providing premium messaging services to our customers."
Verizon disclosed that while it is "in the process of winding down" its premium messaging business, it will still continue to "support text-to-donate for charitable programs and text-to-contribute for political campaigns that use this technology."
