Lonely hearts 'tricked into paying for spam'

An Australian Court has granted interim orders against three companies over allegations of setting up false dating profiles and SMS spamming.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority alleges that the three companies involved - Mobilegate, Winning Bid and Jobspy - had set up false dating profiles to deceptively obtain user details and had sent SMS messages persuading people to reply to the messages, which were charging them up to A$5 per message.

They had also used images of people without consent.

"We allege they had sent SMS messages advertising services in order to make money without people's consent or they gained consent through deception," said Julia Cornwell McKean, the authority's anti-spam manager. "People were allegedly made to believe they were speaking to real people."

The interlocutory order prevents company directors Simon Anthony Owen, Tarek Andreas Salcedo, Scott Mark Moles, Scott Gregory Phillips and Glenn Christopher Maughan from creating, submitting or registering fictitious profiles on dating or social networking sites, along with posting or publishing images of individuals without permission, as well as communicating with users through fictitious profiles on those sites.

Winning Bid has also been ordered to remove fictitious profiles it had placed on dating and social networking sites.

The authority alleges the companies' actions have contravened the Spam Act 2003 and Trade Practices Act 1974.

"The use of trickery to prey for reward upon the lusts or emotional vulnerabilities of others is hardly a vice confined to modern times," Australian Federal Court Justice John Logan said. "What modern times do offer, for those disposed to such a vice, are new means of prey - the internet and the mobile telephone."

If the companies do breach the interlocutory order, they will potentially be held in contempt of court, Ms Cornwell McKean said. "People may not know that the Spam Act does include SMS, and that if people do receive commercial messages without their consent, they should let us know," she said.