Sprint, Verizon Pay $158 Million For Helping Crammers For most of the last decade, regulators have turned a blind eye to incumbent wireless carriers' role in facilitating cramming, or the act of socking customers with $10 a month charges for "premium" services (like horoscopes) they never asked for. While regulators repeatedly hammered smaller cramming scammers in cases that were easy to win, they ignored the help the big four wireless carriers provided in order to grab around 30% of the total revenue.

That ended back in 2013, when regulators finally woke up from their slumber and started investigating T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T and Sprint's roles in the scams. Last December, T-Mobile agreed to a $90 million settlement for aiding crammers. Last October, AT&T had to pay $105 million for not only helping crammers scam their customers -- but for actively making it harder for users to identify the charges on their bills. It's now Verizon and Sprint's turn. The FCC today announced that Sprint will pay $68 million and Verizon will pay $90 million to settle a multi-year investigation into these companies' shady behavior. Not only must the carriers stop allowing such services, they need to clearly highlight where such services appear on user bills. It's unclear why the Sprint and Verizon investigations took notably longer than the AT&T and T-Mobile inquiries. "Consumers rightfully expect their monthly phone bills will reflect only those services that they’ve purchased," FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said in a statement. “Today’s settlements put in place strong protections that will prevent consumers from being victimized by these kinds of practices in the future." If you're a victim of these scams, Sprint users should go If you're a victim of these scams, Sprint users should go here to collect their refunds, and Verizon customers should go here . While better late than never, the tens of millions being paid out are likely only a fraction of the billions made off of these scams over the course of the last decade.







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aaronwt

Premium Member

join:2004-11-07

Woodbridge, VA 1 recommendation aaronwt Premium Member Is that amount of money fined.... anywhere near the amount of money Verizon and Sprint made over the years doing this.

Karl Bode

News Guy

join:2000-03-02 Karl Bode News Guy Re: Is that amount of money fined.... Four carriers, a decade, potentially hundreds of millions of impacted users at $10 a month for who knows how long...I'd imagine not even close.

cork1958

Cork

Premium Member

join:2000-02-26 cork1958 Premium Member Re: Is that amount of money fined.... said by Karl Bode: Four carriers, a decade, potentially hundreds of millions of impacted users at $10 a month for who knows how long...I'd imagine not even close.



They really need to start nailing these guys to the wall, to make it so they feel the impact! The fines these guys get hit with is NEVER even remotely close to what they should be to have any impact of them!They really need to start nailing these guys to the wall, to make it so they feel the impact!

Boricua

Premium Member

join:2002-01-26

Sacramuerto Boricua Premium Member The ONLY people that win out this?!?! The lawyers, scourge of this earth, are the ones. WE get left with NOTHING!!!

pcdebb

birdbrain

Premium Member

join:2000-12-03

Brandon, FL ARRIS DG1670

pcdebb Premium Member Common... When I worked customer service at Alltel, I would say 50% of my calls were to remove these features. Most were $9.99, some where higher, but it was insanely common. We were told to tell customers they must have did it, but we did remove it and give refunds to their bill. your comment..

