Australia’s media and communications regulator says hefty fines should serve as a warning to anyone considering mobile phone spamming.

Fines totalling almost $16 million were handed down to two companies and three individuals in the Federal Court in Brisbane late yesterday for breaches of the Spam Act.

To read this ABC News report in full, see:
www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/24/2723162.htm

Also see:

Text spammers fined $16m
Multi-million-dollar penalties have been dished out in a landmark court case in Brisbane about mobile phone spam.
www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/23/2722971.htm

$15m fine for SMS scammers
The operators of a mobile phone text scam that preyed on the desperate and dateless were slammed with $15.8 million in fines for breaching anti-spam laws in Queensland’s Federal Court.

The fine makes the operators, who posted fake personals profiles on dating web sites to harvest mobile phone numbers and lure men to pay up to $5 per message for SMS sex chat services, the recipients of the largest spam penalty ever handed out in Australia.
www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,,26250790-15317,00.html
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26252641-5013404,00.html