Lovely cram, wonderful cram!

[captainsblog]

Our mobile bill was higher than expected this month. I did expect to go over on minutes, what with all the calls to landlords and whatnot, but not THAT much higher.  Our cutoff date is the 26th of each month, and the bill just became available, and for once, I decided to something totally dangerous and un-corporate America:

I read it.

And there, buried on page 4 of 22, in Emily's part of the bill, among 30 other different line items for different services, fees and taxes, was this little gem:

To stop a subscription, text STOP to the Short Code using the
mobile phone associated with those charges. If a Short Code is
not listed go to att.com/directbill.
AT&T Monthly Subscriptions
    Date                                      Cost Tax
8. 07/08 ApplicationsSub: ATT 9.99 0.87 10.86
Navigator with promo
Provider: Telenav Inc
Contact: 1-800-331-0500
Renew Date: 08/07/2012
Total AT&T Monthly Subscriptions          10.86

She had no idea what it was. Was it part of her find-my-phone service? It was not. (That's a separate $3 a month charge.) Something to do with insurance? Nuh uh.  (Seven a month for THAT.) In short, she had no idea; but at least one message board did:

I checked my AT&T cell phone bill today. The account was crammed for $9.99 per month for something called ATT Navigator.

Crammers send you a text message offering a subscription product. Unless you reply to that text message by sending STOP, you will be billed for the subscription. Even if you open the message and delete it, you still get billed.

This is a complete fraud. The government has done nothing to make this practice illegal.

I called AT&T Wireless customer service this evening. They are refunding the billed amount. I asked them to install what AT&T calls a Cramming Blocker on each of our wireless phones. This blocker is free of charge.

Check your cell phone bills.

You betcha.  We've got at least five months in since she started getting scammed. I'm going tomorrow to get the credit and install the cram blockers. 

And you think the Attorney General might be interested in something this? Why should they? THEY CHARGE TAX ON IT:P