ATT Settles Class Action Over Fraudulent Ringtone Charges
Thanks to AT&T settling a recent class-action, the era of third-party scammers cramming consumers with fraudulent subscriptions to ringtone, hookup text and other stupid content services may soon be over. AT&T Customers can claim refunds for wrongful charges from up to 3 of their bills between 1/1/04 and 5/30/08. The lawyers will get $4.3 million. AT&T will now require subscriptions to 3rd party-services with recurring fees to be confirmed by responding to a text message. 3rd party services will also have to send a monthly reminder with unsubscribe info. The firm has filed similar suits against Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. Claim forms and more info at thirdpartycontentrefund.com.
AT&T settles suit over 3rd-party cell phone fees [AP via MrConsumer]
(Photo: Getty)
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To get your portion of the settlement, text RINGMONEY to...
Wait...people actually sign up for those things?
Now I wish I had gotten in on that. I wouldn't lose any sleep making money off idiots. Of course, I'd be sleeping on a bed of money surrounded by gorgeous women.
So why is ATT at fault here. It should be the 3rd party companies that are charging the customers that are at fault. Most of the time those charges are because the customer did one of those stupid text "joke" to 55645 things and unknowingly signed up for a $9.99/month plan because they didnt read the small print. It isnt ATT's fault.
@linbey: This is talking about services that billed people without people signing up for the service. AT&T is at fault because they just let the charges go to people's bills without doing any kind of verification that the service is actually a valid subscription. They did this because they got a cut of the profit.
I had that happen, and they were pretty good about reversing the charges, but it's just bizarre that they even thought they could get away with it in the first place.
The problem is this goes on at other wireless providers as well, unless they all take stronger measures, the problem will continue.