AT&T to pay $7.75M in fines and refunds for turning a blind eye to fraudulent phone bill cramming
On Monday, the Federal Communications Commission issued a public statement announcing that carrier will be fined for allowing scammers to fraudulently charge landline subscribers, most of which are small businesses based in the Cleveland area. Out of the $7.75 million, $6.8 million are refunds for affected customers. As part of its settlement, AT&T also has to pay a $950,000 fine to the US Treasury.
DDI and ETS charged thousands of small businesses about $9 per month for a directory assistance service. There were two main problems with this. First, the service was never provided. Second, customers have never agreed to pay such a monthly fee and were not even aware that they’re being charged for these fake services. AT&T received a fee for every bill surcharge.
As part of this new settlement, AT&T will be forced to halt billing for nearly all third-party services. Before setting up any third-party landline bill surcharges, AT&T will need to get informed consent from customers. Alto, the FCC has asked the carrier to make sure that subscribers will be able to easily identify third-party charges on their bills.
source: FCC
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Things that are NOT allowed: