Verizon Wireless said today that in its ongoing efforts to protect customer privacy, the company has filed a lawsuit against Nevada-based I-VEST Global Corporation and various "John Does" alleging they sent unsolicited commercial electronic messages - or wireless spam - to Verizon Wireless customers.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Trenton, N.J., alleges that beginning in April 2007, I-VEST attempted to send more than 12 million text messages to handsets belonging to Verizon Wireless subscribers, offering information about buying stocks or real estate. However, spam filtering and network monitoring actions taken by Verizon Wireless prevented the vast majority of the messages from getting through to subscribers’ handsets and resulted in fewer than 5,000 messages being delivered.

Steven E. Zipperstein, vice president and general counsel of Verizon Wireless, said, "While in this case, we were able to block most of the messages from reaching our customers’ handsets, even one unwanted text message is one too many. Verizon Wireless is committed to using our legal and technical resources to the fullest extent on behalf of our customers to uncover and stop the companies and individuals that engage in wireless spam."

Text messaging represents an increasingly important tool used by wireless customers to stay in touch with colleagues, friends and family, as well as by public safety and emergency medical services personnel across the country. Verizon Wireless processes millions of text messages each day, and its subscribers exchanged 22.3 billion text messages in the first quarter of 2007, 4.6 billion more than the previous quarter. Wireless spam impairs the delivery of legitimate messages, and because spam is often sent in high volume over short periods of time, it can place a strain on the overall performance of the wireless network.