Chairman Rockefeller Vows to Avert Wireless Cramming Scams on Consumers

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-WV) sent letters to four US wireless telephone companies sharing his concerns that the practice of “cramming” unauthorized third-party charges is migrating to consumers’ wireless telephone bills.

Consumers have already lost billions of dollars to cramming on their wireline telephone bills. Chairman Rockefeller wrote the same wireless companies – AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile – in June 2012 about the growing incidence of cramming on wireless telephone bills. Since then, studies and reviews of consumer complaint websites call into question the effectiveness of many protections that wireless companies have put in place to protect consumers from unauthorized third-party charges. The Committee completed a year-long investigation into cramming on wireline telephone bills in 2011, which showed that cramming has cost American consumers and businesses billions of dollars over the past decade. In response to the Committee’s investigation, wireline telephone companies took a number of positive steps last year to eliminate cramming on wireline bills. However, millions of American consumers and businesses now use wireless telephones. Rockefeller is concerned that wireless companies have not acted aggressively enough to ensure cramming does not migrate from wireline to wireless bills.