A company found to be bombarding users of Japan’s popular i-mode
mobile internet service with unsolicited commercial e-mail has been
halted by NTT DoCoMo, the company behind the service and the
country’s leading mobile operator.
The opportunity to abuse the e-mail system and bombard users
with unsolicited e-mail was presented by an oversight by DoCoMo
itself. On its launch, DoCoMo created users’ e-mail addresses by
randomly generating simple 11 numeric combinations based on users’
telephone numbers. This made it easy for software to “guess” and
target the addresses.
DoCoMo has been successful in obtaining an injunction against
the company sending the spam, Global Networks, and, said DoCoMo’s
chief legal advisor, “hopes that the legal steps [that have been]
taken will send a strong signal for other companies to refrain from
sending mass e-mail.”
