06/27/2008
McCollum: AT&T Mobility Customers Should Apply for Cell Phone Content Refunds
~ Refunds available from February agreement on cell phone content ~
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Attorney General Bill McCollum today issued a consumer advisory encouraging Florida AT&T Mobility customers to apply for refunds under a recent settlement related to cell phone content. In February, AT&T Mobility became the first wireless company in the nation to police representations made in internet advertising for cell phone content to ensure fair and full disclosure. Under the agreement, the company was also required to make full restitution to Florida consumers who were unknowingly billed for “free” cell phone content.
The agreement was reached after investigators with the Attorney General’s CyberFraud Task Force determined that thousands of Florida AT&T Mobility consumers had received charges on their cell phone bills for certain third party services that they did not authorize. Often, these charges were for ringtones or other services which were advertised as “free,” but resulted in customers unwittingly being signed up for costly monthly subscriptions for third-party content, including horoscopes, wallpaper and other cell phone-related content. The cooperative agreement reached by the Attorney General’s CyberFraud Task Force with AT&T Mobility established a new model for the advertising and billing of cell phone content.
The agreement with AT&T Mobility, formerly known as Cingular Wireless, allows customers to seek refunds even if they are no longer AT&T or Cingular customers. The company has also agreed to enhance its customer complaint resolution process and, upon request, will terminate a customer’s enrollment in any recurring membership program and will issue full credits and refunds without referring the customer to a third party for such resolution. Consumers are encouraged to visit http://www.thirdpartysubscriptionrefund.com or call 1-877-465-4816 for more information on the details of the Refund Program and how to make a claim. Additional information should be included in consumers' monthly cell phone bills.
Under the agreement, AT&T Mobility also agreed to adopt and enforce strict standards for internet advertising developed by the CyberFraud Task Force. The company, through its contracts with all content providers and advertisers, now requires those entities to clearly and conspicuously disclose the true cost of ringtones and other content in all online advertising to potential customers. The task force intends to use the AT&T Mobility agreement as a model as it continues its investigation of the industry, including investigations into Verizon, Sprint/Nextel, Alltel and T-Mobile for similar billing issues.