FTC to Reimburse AT&T Customers $88M In Cramming Fees
Dec 8, 2016, 4:07 PM by Eric M. Zeman
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission today laid out plans to return some $88 million in cash to wronged AT&T customers. In 2014, AT&T settled with the FTC over illegally adding third-party charges to monthly bills, a practice known as cramming. The FTC says 2.5 million current AT&T customers and 300,000 former customers will receive reimbursement for about $31 sometime in the next 75 days. Existing customers will receive the money as a bill credit, while former customers will be written checks. "AT&T received a high volume of complaints related to mobile cramming prior to the FTC and other federal and state agencies stepping in on consumers' behalf," said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. "I am pleased that consumers are now being refunded their money and that AT&T has changed its mobile billing practices." Most of the third-party fees involved ringtones, horoscopes, and other messaging-based subscriptions.
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Comments
Sweet, it only took the FTC 26 years to respond to Millions of compaints.
Every single carrier allowed this shady practice for Years and made Millions (if not Billions) from it. Both the FTC and the FCC ignored thousands (probably millions) of complaints about it for 20+ years and Now... Now they want to act like some kind of hero.
Im more curious how money did each state as well as the FTC profit from this "Settlement" than how little the few eligible victims get back. Is it More or Less than the entire payout to the actual victims?
Most people who got caught up in these premium text scams paid more than $31, $19.99 x 2 = $40, which is usually the least time it takes people to figure out what is going on, and often much lo...
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