AT&T To Pay $105M For ‘Mobile Cramming’

Customers who were billed for “hundreds of millions of dollars” in authorized charges for ringtones and text messages will get refunds, under a settlement AT&T agreed to with the FTC. The mobile phone giant will pay the FTC $80 million, for customer refunds, an additional $20 million in penalties to states, and a $5 million penalty to the Federal Communications Commission. The practice of billing for third-party charges, known as ‘mobile cramming,’ has been the target of seven similar actions by the FTC since April 2013. According to the FTC, AT&T kept at least 35 percent of the unauthorized charges.