AT&T American Telephone and Telegraph - AT&T facilitates cramming of telephone bill. Bedminster New Jersey

AT&T added charges to my phone bill from a third party vendor.  They did this without verifying with me that the charge was authorized, as required by California Public Utilities Commission regulations.  They also asserted that they were required by FCC rules to NOT verify that the added charges were authorized.  This is a ludicrous claim on its face.

AT&T refused to provide any evidence that FCC rules required them to add charges without authorization from me, their subscriber.  They also asserted that they recieve no income from the service of adding third party vendor's charges to telephone bills.  This, in essence, means they work for free in this respect, an unbelievable statement. 

Neither FCC nor California PUC rules prohibit AT&T or other similar telephone service providers from verifying the validity of charges that third party vendors ask to be included in their bills.  Additionally, it defies common sense to believe that AT&T, Verizon, and others do not receive some service charge for adding and following up on unpaid charges from third party vendors.

In other words, there is every appearance that AT&T and others are passively facilitating the cramming of subscriber bills nationwide and are facilitating the fraudulant conversion of subscriber wealth on a massive basis to unscrupulous third party vendors.

It is important that each consumer affected by cramming file and follow up on a complaint with his or her state public utilities commission and with the FCC.  Both will have websites designed to assist with this.  Also, most states will have put their PUC rules on-line, where you can review what is required in order for your service provider to place third party charges onto your bill.

Cramming is a nationwide - possibly world wide - issue of huge magnitude which is stealing money from American citizens at a ferocious rate.  It seems clear that it is a profitable crime that is made easy by the attitude of companies like AT&T, Verizon, and others who claim to have no responsibility to help stamp it out and who - as a result - give every appearance of profiting from it.

It's been talked and complained about for years and it's still around and is getting worse.   Why would that be?