Have you ever taken a look at your phone bill? If you have, chances are some of you guys might be confused by the various charges. You would think that you just need to pay for what you use, but sometimes there are all kinds of additional charges that you did not know about, all of which can add up over time.However the good news is that if you have been billed $9 a month by AT&T over “directory assistance” charges, you’ll be pleased to learn that your money is now being refunded thanks to a settlement between the carrier and the FCC. The FCC has ordered AT&T to refund $6.8 million to its affected customers, and on top of that, the carrier will also be hit with an additional $950,000 penalty for allowing this “scam” to run unchecked for so long.
According to the FCC’s statement, “AT&T allowed scammers to charge customers approximately $9 per month for a sham directory assistance service. The scam was uncovered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) while investigating the scammers for drug-related crimes and money laundering.”
AT&T has also released a statement regarding the matter which reads, “We have implemented strict requirements on third parties submitting charges for AT&T bills to ensure that all charges are authorized by our customers; indeed, those requirements go beyond the requirements of FCC rules. Nonetheless, unbeknownst to us, two companies that engaged in a sophisticated fraud scheme were apparently able to circumvent those protections and submit unauthorized third-party charges that were billed by AT&T.”
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