January 30, 2015
Cell phone cramming happens when third-party vendors use consumers’ phone numbers much like a credit card. Vendors add charges to phone bills for bogus products or services, such as celebrity gossip items, horoscopes, trivia and joke-of-the-day offerings, that consumers and businesses never requested or authorized. But because consumers rarely, if ever, detect the fraudulent charges, the scammers often illegally profit for months at a time.
Stories this photo appears in:
Madigan Announces $90 Million T-Mobile Settlement Over Cell Phone Bill Cramming
Ill. Attorney General Lisa Madigan last month joined with her counterparts around the country, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission to announce a $90 million settlement with T-Mobile USA over allegations the company placed unauthorized charges on customers’ accounts, a practice known as “cramming.”