Florida satellite company says Marchex is stealing phone calls from it.
A Florida satellite TV company has sued Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX), alleging that the company is hijacking Skype calls of people trying to reach the company (pdf).
A-SAT Inc., d/b/a International Satellite & Antenna Service, filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Orlando on Thursday.
If you have Skype installed on your computer, then you’ve seen how phone numbers are automatically turned into links. Clicking on these links calls the phone number through Skype.
According to A-SAT, Marchex has a deal with Skype in which the online marketing company can declare phone numbers it wants to “control” in Skype. It alleges that Marchex researches the phone numbers of its clients’ competitors, and then controls the numbers by forwarding click-to-call Skype calls intended for those numbers to its clients instead.
The five page lawsuit does not show any examples.
Jp says
This seems not likely.
David Lahoti says
Agree with JP, why would an established service such as Skype want to ruin the integrity of its service by allowing such call interception.
It doesn’t add up especially when they couldn’t even include a single example in its lawsuit.
Mike says
I dont trust the cloud or wifi or digital phone, even my cell phone. Too many hands in the pie and too many people wanting to get at private info and/or private conversation for whatever fetish they need to satisfy.
Trico says
If this is really a collusion between Marchex and Skype why isn’t Skype part of A-SAT Inc’s lawsuit?
Louise says
The suit alleges Marchex is using a Skype plugin or app to redirect official ISIS phone numbers – the numbers Marchex has researched and publicly displayed – as ISIS Skype numbers. But instead of linking to ISIS, they link to competitors.
If this is proven, it is a case of impersonation, very damaging to the entire domain industry!
Dave Thomas says
Google has come out with some very innovative advertising programs lately and this one is right up your ally if you’re a professional Realtor. Along with your Google AdWords pay per click campaign for your real estate website you can now have “click to call”. Instead of your real estate customers clicking through to your real estate website, they can now call you directly from your pay per click ad. If you’re a Realtor It’s a new and unique way for you to connect with potential real estate customers in your area.