Cell phone message spam, aka SMS spam, may not be nearly as prevalent as email spam (fortunately - that could really add up in charges), but appears that cell phone carriers are taking the possibility of a growing SMS spam threat seriously - by putting the screws to the spammers. The most recent target to fall: Specialized programming and Marketing, which sent out 100,000 spam SMS messages to Verizon Wireless customers in 2005 while in the employ of Passport Holidays. Both Specialized Programming and Marketing and Passport Holidays are barred by a judgment handed down yesterday from sending further spam messages to Verizon customers; the two companies also paid a grand total of $210,000 in damages to Verizon.

On a related note, Sophos, an Internet security company is urging cell phone customers to report any instances of SMS spam to their carriers. It's a nice idea, but unless there's a simple, free way to do so, I don't see anyone doing so - who wants to wait 20 minutes on hold to tell a customer service agent they just received a text message?