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ATLANTA, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Cingular Wireless has won its lawsuit against data broker 1st Source Information Specialists, Inc., with the U.S. District Court in Atlanta, Ga. ordering the cell phone records peddler and associated individuals to pay Cingular $1.135 million in damages. "This victory underscores the fact that Cingular will not tolerate data burglars," said Joaquin Carbonell, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Cingular Wireless. "We are fighting to protect customer privacy on other fronts as well, including filing new lawsuits against telemarketers and spammers." In December 2005, Cingular filed a civil lawsuit alleging that 1st Source Information Specialists, Inc. unlawfully acquired and disseminated Cingular customer records. Cingular subsequently obtained a permanent injunction against the data broker. All told, Cingular has filed seven lawsuits against more than 30 corporate and individual defendants for alleged cell phone records theft. Cingular has already obtained permanent injunctions against most of these defendants. Telemarketing and Spamming In addition, Cingular has filed another three lawsuits to protect its customers from unsolicited and illegal telemarketing calls and text messages. In one lawsuit, Cingular alleges that the operators of http://www.webuyresorts.com/ and http://www.resortsellers.com/ transmitted unauthorized, deceptive, and unsolicited commercial text messages to Cingular customers' wireless phones. The spam messages were sent in October 2006 and concerned buying and selling time shares. In a second lawsuit, Cingular alleges that Gary Bullard of Miramar, Fla. also transmitted unauthorized, deceptive, and unsolicited commercial text messages to Cingular customers. The spam messages, received by customers in July 2006, advertised "free" vacations. In both of these cases, Cingular alleges that the defendants violated the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Georgia Computer Systems Protection Act, and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. For example, Cingular claims the defendants used deceptive and fraudulent techniques to camouflage their identities and impair Cingular's ability to filter their spam messages. In a third lawsuit, Cingular alleges that Hispanic Solutions, Inc. of Miami, Fla. made unsolicited marketing calls to Cingular subscribers through the use of an automatic telephone dialing system -- actions expressly prohibited under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and other laws. (Autodialing systems store or produce telephone numbers to be called using a random or sequential number generator.) Cingular alleges that Hispanic Solutions and associated individuals made telemarketing calls with Spanish pre-recorded messages to Cingular customers during February and March 2006. Cingular, which seeks injunctions and damages in all three lawsuits, is committed to protecting its customers from the annoyance and intrusion of illegal telemarketing and spam. Last month, Cingular filed three lawsuits against telemarketers for making unsolicited and illegal calls using autodialing systems. In addition, in August 2006, the company obtained an injunction against Passport Holidays, LLC of Ormond Beach, Fla. for sending unsolicited text messages. All of these lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court in Atlanta. About Cingular Wireless Cingular Wireless is the largest wireless carrier in the United States, serving 58.7 million customers. Cingular, a joint venture between AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and BellSouth Corporation (NYSE:BLS), has the largest digital voice and data network in the nation -- the ALLOVER(TM) network -- and the largest mobile-to-mobile community of any national wireless carrier. Cingular is a leader in third generation wireless technology. Its 3G network is the first widely available service in the world to use HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology. Cingular is the only U.S. wireless carrier to offer Rollover(R), the wireless plan that lets customers keep their unused monthly minutes. Details of the company are available at http://www.cingular.com/. Get Cingular Wireless press releases emailed to you automatically. Sign up at http://cingular.mediaroom.com/. DATASOURCE: Cingular Wireless CONTACT: Rochelle Cohen, +1-202-419-3007, or wireless, +1-202-341-5967, or , or Mark Siegel, +1-404-236-6312, or wireless, +1-404-374-2799, or , both of Cingular Wireless Web site: http://www.cingular.com/ http://cingular.mediaroom.com/

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