Thousands of people in Florida have apparently been plagued with unwanted text messages for a scrap metal business looking to buy junk cars. Now on lawyer says he’s found the people responsible for the text spam — and that they owe at least $1 billion in fines.

The Orlando Sun-Sentinel reports on the lawsuit, filed last week in federal court. It alleges that the defendants — a group that currently only lists three individuals but leaves room for a large number of John Does — “sent out tens of thousands of unwanted text messages in an attempt to increase the bottom line of their scrap metal business,” and that they should pay $500 per offending text message.

The suit claims that the defendants, owners of towing and scrap metal businesses in Miami, purchased a list of consumers’ cellphone numbers and used that information to illegally blast out “WE BUY JUNK CARS” texts through an auto-dialing system.

The lawyer for the plaintiffs tells the Sun-Sentinel:

The law is quite clear in this regard: If you call or text a cellular telephone using an auto dialer without the prior express consent of the consumer, you have broken the law and are subject to financial penalties… Those penalties can be as high as $1,500 dollars in some cases.

Texters should pay $1 billion for JUNK CAR spam, lawsuit says [Sun-Sentinel.com]

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