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AT&T Fined More than $10 Million in Florida

Mar 3, 2008, 11:16 AM by Eric M. Zeman

AT&T announced a settlement with the Florida Attorney General's office regarding third-party ringtones that were advertised as free, but were billed to end users. AT&T will reimburse customers who were charged for the ringtones. The ringtones were advertised as free fraudulently by third-party providers. After the ringtones were downloaded, users were charged for the cost of the ringtone by AT&T per its agreements with the third-party providers. In addition to the reimbursements, AT&T has to pay the state of Florida $2.5 million and another $500,000 toward consumer education on safe Internet use. It says it has since put protective measures in place to prevent customers from being mis-led about billing. The Florida Attorney General is also investigating other wireless companies to eliminate fraudulent third-party billing practices.

Associated Press »

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Comments

This forum is closed.

This forum is closed.

AvgJoe

Mar 3, 2008, 1:17 PM

Amazing

People click on "free Ringtones" Then enter their phone number and don't read the fine print which says they will be billed EVERY MONTH for access.

HOw can this lack of responsibility on the part of a consumer be ATT's fault. Perhaps ATT should not be billing at the whims of a third party. But come on people wake up.

READ THE AGREEMENTS.....NOTHING IS "FREE"

anti787

imagine that i access the web and subscribe you to a monthly ringer service for $9.99 do you think its your responsability??

but its just and ex. your right. but do you really always read full agreement??

...

49ways

Hey AvgJoe,
It's called false advertising. And that's illegal. The State of Florida is just protecting citizens.

BigShowJB

why isn't the state going after the third party service providers? They are clearly the ones truly at fault for false advertising!! The free ringtones are not being provided by AT&T (oh my god I'm actually defending them? prepare for armageddon eve...
(continues)

jrfdsf

Why do we as a society continue to reward consumer stupidity? This will only translate into higher wireless bills as the cost gets passed on to the consumer! 😡

...

djr88

I agree, I work for a wireless provider and get the same kind of issues with customers coming in and complaining about the same crap. I just tell them to be on the safe side and buy applications from your own cell phone providers website. 🙂

Celling_it

Mar 5, 2008, 7:17 AM

Wasteful Lawsuit

Why does our court system allow people to sue for such ridiculous things? ATT ahould not have to pay anything to anyone, they did not initiat the charges.

Maybe ATT should have a policy like VZW to protect themselves. VZW requires these companies to have a double opt in policy in order to sign up for premium text.

crackberry

Mar 3, 2008, 12:04 PM

more information left out by the editor...

from the same site:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/29/news/companies/att_f ... »

it also says the following, which phonescoop left out of their reporting of the article.

McCollum said it was easier for the state to go after AT&T and pressure it to better police its contracts with third parties than to go after the actual companies selling the ringtones and other content - because there are so many of them.

"As soon as you close one of them down, another one of them is going to pop up," McCollum said.

Roadkill

This makes no sense to me... sounds like AT&T did nothing wrong, but is somehow being forced to pay for a 3rd party's shady practices?

Honestly, the courts should have thrown this out and forced the state of Florida to go after the 3rd party vendor...
(continues)

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texaswireless

Looks as though the story was basically copied from the AP. Makes it easier to not add anything about what actually happened and to warn users about what caused this issue in the first place.

Crapbag

Mar 3, 2008, 2:27 PM

Ban third party billing

I wonder if AT&T is going to put a stop to third party billing now? Perhaps accounts should come stock with third party billing turned off. If you want third party billing allowed on your account, you should have to state it.

Webb

Another option would be a targeted cull of 3rd party direct bill merchants.

...

jrfdsf

Mar 3, 2008, 5:04 PM

Not AT&T's Fault

Fraudulent third party billing should be between the customer and the agency involved.

Moral of this story: Don't get ringers from third party vendors!

chocolateman85006

Indeed; they usually suck, anyway!

robritcomm

Mar 3, 2008, 12:04 PM

??????

typicle at&t too funny 🤣

Crapbag

What part? Getting bent over for third party apps? Do other providers auto block third party apps?

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Roadkill

Has nothing to do with AT&T, really. My former company had more problems with Verizon along these lines than with AT&T. We also had problems with Sprint.

This whole lawsuit should have been thrown out... the state of Florida is going after the wr...
(continues)

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justiN0six

Mar 3, 2008, 1:48 PM

And why exactly....

Does the State of Florida get paid??? HMM??? Sounds to me like it was the 3rd party vendorz fault.. Way to cost us money... anywayz.. pocket change..

txguy07

Actually it wasn't the state of Florida to get paid that amount, but the customers who had to pay that money, they were reimbursed. 🙂

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Shoota

Mar 3, 2008, 11:58 AM

hmm

those jerks ... 🤨

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