🌎 It’s World Press Freedom Day. Stand with Marketplace and our independent journalism. Donate now
Codebreaker

Klobuchar calls for cramming ban, Rockefeller to introduce bill

John Moe Mar 22, 2012


Phone cramming is when you get little charges on your bill, often so small you don’t notice, for services you never signed up for. The scammers, or crammer scammers, or crammer scammer spammers, will register people against their will and figure enough people won’t bother to fix it that they’ll make money.

Now, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is calling on the wireless carriers to ban this practice and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) will be introducing a bill in the next few days to make it a crime.

From Hillicon Valley:

An investigation by the Senate Commerce Science and Transportation Committee last year found that phone companies had placed $10 billion in third-party charges on customers’ landline phone bills over the last five years — and that a large percentage of those charges were unauthorized.

So I found this item earlier this morning, while I was at home. As I left for work, I got four spam texts in a row, one after the other. I replied, finally, saying take me off your list. THEN I got a reply saying I had to call them because I had signed up to get said texts. After waiting on hold, a dude told me that I had signed up through a different company and he couldn’t tell me who. He took my name off the list and then sent another text confirming that. He suggested I call my wireless carrier about charges. SAVE US, CONGRESS.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.