FCC Fines Optic Internet Protocol $7.6 Million for Illegally Billing Customers and Switching Their Phone Companies

The Federal Communications Commission has fined Optic Internet Protocol, Inc., an Alpharetta (GA) telephone company, $7,620,000 for changing consumers’ long distance carriers without their authorization (“slamming”), placing unauthorized charges for service on consumers’ telephone bills (“cramming”), and submitting fabricated audio recordings as “proof” that consumers had authorized the company to switch their carriers. The Enforcement Bureau reviewed more than 150 complaints against Optic that consumers filed with the FCC, the Federal Trade Commission, state regulatory agencies, and the Better Business Bureau.

Consumers complained that Optic switched their long distance service provider without their authorization, and that they had never heard of or spoken to the company before discovering charges on their telephone bills. Consumers also complained that the company told them that they or someone in their household had authorized the service, when in fact no one had done so. It appears Optic fabricated audio recordings to “prove” that consumers authorized changes in their services, played these bogus recordings for consumers and produced them for law enforcement; the recordings, however, did not in any way relate to the consumers at issue.