Regulators accuse T-Mobile of bogus billing

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20140701/us--ftc-t-mobile-e8d8d9c0ea.html

Jul 1, 6:21 PM (ET)
By ANNE FLAHERTY

T-Mobile US knowingly made hundreds of millions of dollars off its customers in potentially bogus charges, federal regulators alleged Tuesday in the first lawsuit of its kind against a wireless provider.
The lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission, which fueled a separate federal investigation, demands that T-Mobile refund the money to consumers for subscriptions to premium text services such as $10-per-month horoscopes that were never authorized by the account holder. The FTC alleges that T-Mobile collected as much as 40 percent of the charges, even after being alerted by other customers that the subscriptions were scams.

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The practice is often referred to as "cramming": businesses stuff a customer's bill with bogus charges associated with a third party. In this case, the FTC said, most T-Mobile customers never agreed to sign up for the services but were billed anyway.
T-Mobile says it tried to put consumer protections in place, but that many of the third-party vendors acted irresponsibly. The FTC counters that T-Mobile should have been tipped off that these text services were scams because of the high rate of customer complaints.
The FTC also alleges that T-Mobile often hid the charges, making it almost impossible for customers to protest. Regulators estimate that T-Mobile kept as much as 40 percent of the bogus charges, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars.

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The FTC said consumers should contact their wireless provider if they fear they are a victim of cramming. They also can file a complaint with the FTC.
One way for consumers to try to prevent fraudulent charges is to ask their providers to block all third-party businesses from providing services on their phones.

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