Saw this in my L.A. Times this morning.
http://www.latimes.com/...
The agency took steps against third-party charges on landline bills, but cellphone users still get hit by unauthorized charges — and phone providers get a cut.
Seems that scammers are using text messages to cell phone to assess users with bogus charges -- and the cell phone companies are raking in the cash.
Wen Chao received a text message on her iPhone the other day from something called Ringtunecloud.com. It offered mobile content, such as ring tones, for $9.99 a month.
Chao, 43, ignored it.
About an hour and a half later, she received a more ambiguous text: "You play the peacemaker for others when two friends go to war. Suggest a new activity to the parties involved, and you will get peace."
Figuring it might have been from a friend, Chao clicked it open and — what do you know? — it, too, was from Ringtunecloud.com.
So she did exactly what wireless companies advise customers to do. She called her provider, Verizon Wireless, and asked that Ringtunecloud.com be blocked from sending any more texts to her phone.
The Verizon rep agreed to do this, but informed Chao that a $9.99 monthly service charge already had been applied to her account — just because she had clicked on the text.
The FCC, it seems, is trying to deal with the problem.
But the wireless industry, which claims to have people's backs when it comes to cramming, thinks blocking all third-party charges would be a terrible idea.
And there's a reason for that: Phone companies get a cut of the action. More on that in a moment.
"Making it more difficult for a customer to purchase and consume third-party content not only risks cutting off customers from innovative products and from the convenience of their portable devices, it also potentially subjects a burgeoning industry of entrepreneurs and job creators to financial distress," AT&T said in its own comments to the FCC.
At the end of the article, you'll find contact email for the FCC and a link to information about an upcoming conference about wireless cramming set for May 8.