T-Mobile Took Millions in Bogus Charges to Customers, FTC Alleges

The Federal Trade Commission says T-Mobile has taken hundreds of millions of dollars from customers in bogus charges.

The charges were for third-party subscriptions for things like flirting tips, horoscopes, and celebrity gossip that often weren’t authorized by customers, CNN reported.

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The FCC filed a lawsuit against the company on Tuesday.

As many as 40 percent of customers sought refunds for the charges, which occurred between 2009 and December 2013, according to the report.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a statement that the lawsuit is unfounded and that the company stopped billing for premium texting services last year.

On June 10, T-Mobile announced a program to tell customers how to seek a refund for premium services if they were not authorized.

Reuters said the FCC had been in settlement talks with T-Mobile but was unable to reach an agreement.

In November, T-Mobile USA, Verizon, AT&T Mobility, and Sprint agreed to stop billing customers for third-party services. The agreement came under pressure from 45 state attorneys general.

Charges for the text message subscriptions were typcially $9.99 a month, and T-mobile received 35 percent to 40 percent of the fees, The Los Angeles Times reported.

“It’s wrong for a company like T-Mobile to profit from third-party charges when there were clear warning signs those charges were fraudulent,” said FTC consumer protection director Jessica Rich, according to the Los Angeles Times. “We will be seeking refunds for consumers and hopefully we’ll get consumers’ money back.”

The Federal Communications Commission, which shares jurisdiction with the FTC on such complaints, said Tuesday that it also has launched an investigation into cramming complaints against T-Mobile. Cramming is the practice of putting unauthorized or misleading charges on phone bills.

Twitter users expressed frustrations.

Free music streams=cool This, uncool->FTC: T-Mobile Hiding '100's Of Millions $' Bogus Charges to consumers http://t.co/BqBB0FHAPW via @sai

— cнiρ вroωn (@ChipBrown) July 1, 2014

Even big corps are thieves.FTC: T-Mobile made millions in bogus charges: http://t.co/qbUP9aNNtT via @AOL

— donna ross (@iiarwatch) July 1, 2014

Why we need regulators free market must have checks to protect the poepleFTC: T-Mobile made millions in bogus charges http://t.co/vJbl2oX7LQ

— Michael Martin (@mfpmartin) July 1, 2014

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