Ringing Up Big Charges For "Free" Tones

Charges For Unordered, Unwanted Services Popping Up On Cell Phone Bills — And They Can Be Tough To Stop

(CBS)  Every kid wants a special ring tone.

"What's wrong with the ringtones that come with the phone?" CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson asked teenager Kelsi Dolan.

"They're Beethoven!" Kelsi said.

So imagine Kelsi Dolan's excitement when she got a text message on her brand new phone.

"It said, 'you've qualified for a free ringtone,' and they sent it to me three times," Kelsi said. "So I asked my Mom if I could get it and she said 'no.' So I texted 'no' back."

But saying "no" wasn't enough. A charge for $19.99 showed up on her phone bill. When her mom tried to get it removed, her phone company told her it was a monthly subscription and it couldn't be stopped.

"I didn't even want a refund for the first month because I figured, 'okay, ya got me.'" Debbie Dolan, Kelsi's mother, said. "Fine I'll take the $20 hit. But when you're gonna keep doing it and you won't do anything to stop it?!"

It's called "cramming," Attkisson reports: Charges for services you didn't order and don't want that can be next to impossible to stop.

And it's not just happening to kids. Last year, the FCC ordered millions of dollars returned to angry cell phone customers who said they were scammed.

Rebecca Anderson did nothing more than search the Web for free ringtones. Then she, too, got hit by monthly charges.

"I did not agree to any charges. I did not download anything," Anderson said.

An innocuous-looking website run by a company called Ringaza. Peel away the layers of Ringaza and you find a man named Scott Richter, better known to some as "the King of Spam."

A few years ago, Richter was one of the biggest e-mail spammers in the world. He even paid a $7 million settlement over it. And now he's in the ringtone business. He didn't respond to our repeated interview requests.

But carriers like Ringaza owe some of their success to carriers like Verizon Wireless ... which agree to add the charges to your regular phone bill.

"If you believe that you've been charged in error or that you didn't subscribe, we'll credit that charge," said Verizon Wireless spokesman John Johnson.

Johnson says if you suspect fraud, all you have to do is call. But it's not always that easy.

"Verizon said that this was an outside carrier and they were not responsible for these charges," Anderson said.

And in Dolan's case: "They told me they wouldn't take it off and they couldn't stop it."

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Couric & Co.: First-person accounts of cell-phone overcharge ordeals.

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It turns out the big carriers are making money off the deal.

"What is Verizon's share?" Attkisson asked Johnson. "What kind of cut do you get from these bills?"

"I don't have a percentage," Johnson said.

"Does 30 to 40 percent sound accurate?" she asked.

"It doesn't sound unreasonable, but again I don't know," Johnson said.

It looks to the customers like Verizon or other companies may not be very responsive because they're getting a cut of the action.

"Well, sometimes it looks that way and that really concerns us," Johnson said.

Since CBS News first began working on this story, Verizon decided to change its policy. Customers can now block those unwanted charges.

And Kelsi is still looking for the right ring tone ... one that's really free.

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If you think you've been a victim of a cell phone scam:

According to the FCC, Consumers may submit a general complaint to the FCC at: [e-mail]. If someone has questions or needs assistance filing a complaint, Consumer and Mediation Specialists are available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET. Call Toll Free: 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) voice, 1-888-TELL- FCC (1-888-835-5322) TTY.

Or check out the FCC's cell phone scam information page here.

[rollo815]

you can request that the site can be put on the balck list belive me it exist i used to work for tmobil and all cell phone servers have a black list my e mail is [e-mail] do,nt let them fool you the balcklist is very real

[abralyn]

Dada, they texted me, and now Verison says I''m responsible for DaDa''s services. THIS IS GREAT, because they text me a least twice a day. Bet me, after I reach hundreds in dollars of DaDa services Verison will want to cancel me. I have no way to block these messages and no longer even check my text mail messages.

[payasyougo]

Call Cingular, ATT''s wireless arm and tell them that you want text messaging disabled. Don''t hang up until they take care of it and then ask them to put a note in your account that you requested text messaging to be disabled.

I would think you could do the same with Verizon.

Make sure they put a note in your account file.

You have every right to disable a service you don''t want. After that, your carrier has no right to charge you.

[mrsmom3]

There are sites that you can get free ringtones without the worry of hidden charges or subscriptions. I use myxertones.com and phonezoo.com. You can upload a song and make a ringtone out of it and send it to yourself. The only charge you get is whatever it costs for you to have messaging on your phone. It also has videos and wallpaper for your phone. You won''t get charged anything from them.

[beehive21-2009]

whoo text messaging is fun,cell companies ,will try to take advantage of you like the oil companies,was going to put car dealers however new car dealers are very good esp. if you have the extended warranty with GM.Buy unlimited text messaging only $ 20.00 / Mo. w/ t mobile,great company, verizion is inferior in my experience.stay with name brands they will not bake you like the fly by nights.Hope this info helps,buy from the best like food, eat Organic or local ,it''s best for you and your family.

[magoo2u1]

Who do these people think they are, Verizon and the rest of them? Do they really think they create their own law and can''t be punished? Check the male enhancement jerk, 20 years in prison for the scams he pulled. The CEOs of these corporations can go to jail too. Also, they count on us accepting the "they got me for 20 bucks, aw gee whiz I guess they can keep it" attitude and they get million dollar bonus''s for the extra revenue they steal from us.

[donbl1]

cancel the subscription even if you have to pay a penalty.

Only voting with your feet will get their attention.

[hokuto1]

"Who do these people think they are, Verizon and the rest of them?"

Who are they? Why they''re the Great Patriotic Corporations that went along with George Bush''s unconstitutional wiretapping of our phones in exchange for mucho profit, and then cut it off suddenty when the government forgot to pay, and who are now lobbying tooth and nail to avoid responsibility for their illegal wiretapping.

[downtowner97]

My ridiculous cell phone bill affects my life far more than baseball player steroid use. Why isn''t the House of Representatives working on this?

[ms38654ob]

I have a website that is very similar to a "free ringtone" site''s name, minus one letter. I get angry letters all the time from morons who can''t spell, who were scammed by this company into getting the "free" ringtone which ends up costing $2.95 a week. The problem they have with the phone company is that in the very fine print of the agreement they have to agree to in order to be charged is the detail, but nobody reads that stuff so they think they''re really getting something for free.

I use the standard telephone ring sound on my phone. I can''t imagine paying for something that just indicates I''m getting a call. What a racket!

[walt1944-2009]

These people being "crammed" are encountering the workings of the "Ferengi" economy as practiced and preached by the Great Emperor Bush II and the entire Bush family.

One of the thousands of rules for profit from the Ferengi bible, The Rules of Acquisition, states that it is OK for you to cheat someone out of their "profit" even if it means sharing a part of your profit with a third party (in this case, the phone companies). If caught, just use the tried and true excuse "IT''S JUST BUSINESS", and move on to the next victim, because as long as the Great Emperor Bush II sits on the throne in the Oval Office, and the neocon Fascist Nazi GOP can continue to intimidate the evil, cowardly Whimpo-crats, you have nothing to fear!

SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!!
sig heil, McCain???

[excoachken]

It Cowardly Cowboy Corporatism at it''s finest. How many more days of this Moron do we have to put up with?????

[martin9p2]

Verizon offered me a text messaging "disocunt" plan, and I said "No", I don''t want a text messaging plan. So they put me down as "Pay as you go". Bull-F-***! Then they decided to send me a "Premium Message" for about $20, and said I had to pay the bill because I hadn''t agreed to a discount messaging plan. Bull-F''ing-***, I says to those ***, and after about three months I got the charge taken off my bill. I didn''t switch carriers because they''re ALL out to get me.

[jlwesley]

I started getting monthly data download charges on my Verizon cell bill, nobody at Verizon could tell me what they were for, or remove them for me. They said it was something that I must have committed for and it was my problem, so I would have to contact the billing company and straighten it out, then I could not contact the billing company, I left messages, sent emails, nothing.

When I refused to pay those charges Verizon disconnected my cell phones and billed me for early termination of the contract, now every month we get dunned by a differant collection agency, I tell them to sue us but they wont do it. I guess I will have to sue them to stop.

One good thing, I switched to Cingular now AT&T, best service I have ever had, should have gone with them 15 years ago instead of spending all of that time with Screwrizon.

[libsrweak]

My ridiculous cell phone bill affects my life far more than baseball player steroid use. Why isn''''t the House of Representatives working on this?


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Posted by downtowner97 at 09:04 PM : Feb 22, 2008
+ report abuse


****************

and they said liberals hate big government..

[libsrweak]

Posted by walt1944 at 09:57 PM : Feb 22, 2008
+ report abuse


****************

i guess liberals will always whine just about anything,,cant afford it??? DONT BUY IT..dumb arse..your philosophy in life came from a tv show??

[jwind11]

These people being "crammed" are encountering the workings of the "Ferengi" economy as practiced and preached by the Great Emperor Bush II and the entire Bush family.

One of the thousands of rules for profit from the Ferengi bible, The Rules of Acquisition, states that it is OK for you to cheat someone out of their "profit" even if it means sharing a part of your profit with a third party (in this case, the phone companies). If caught, just use the tried and true excuse "IT''''S JUST BUSINESS", and move on to the next victim, because as long as the Great Emperor Bush II sits on the throne in the Oval Office, and the neocon Fascist Nazi GOP can continue to intimidate the evil, cowardly Whimpo-crats, you have nothing to fear!

SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!!
sig heil, McCain???

Posted by walt1944

everything in your pathetic life is not bush fault...got get help

[ioweign]

everything in your pathetic life is not bush fault...got get help

Posted by jwind11 at 11:28 PM : Feb 22, 2008

Hey - they are going to have some hefty legal bills because they listened to Bush and his wiretapping BS and the need cash now - well at least Qwest didn''t...

[occams_taser]

but the right wing nutballs still insist capitalism works best without regulation!

[occams_taser]

A few years ago they used to change your long distance service! Mine got changed to MCI''s bend-over-and-take-it-up-the-rear plan (without my permission), and I was getting charged 57 cents per minute for calls from California to Colorado!

[nothappyatall]

"Verizon said that this was an outside carrier and they were not responsible for these charges," Anderson said.

And in Dolan''s case: "They told me they wouldn''t take it off and they couldn''t stop it."

OH? then that''s when I''d tell the little lady on the other end of the phone to take her service and shove it because I was cancelling my phone right then and there and will not pay the bill.

[brianbwb-2009]

How about a story on these people like

Posted by cherryhu
Posted by Sophielhu
Posted by Donyang2000
Posted by Luvnererends1

And others who get paid to fill these discussion threads with very unwelcome porn site spam, like,

pubspa.com
herpeslove.com
sugarmommamatch.com
tallmingle.com

and other such perv sites that so far CBS has been unable to curb?

CBS has an efficient sensor bot that deletes the word *** without fail, surely after receiving enough complaints they could input the names of the offending websites in the database, then, since they can no longer get their sites mentioned, there is no reason to bring their garbage to these discussions...

[shanev137]

Think about it.

If you''re a cell phone company and have 1 million customers, and you send a bogus text message to each one of your customers every month that costs a dollar....how much extra profit did you just make that year if nobody disputes them?

Like I said....think about it.

[alphaa10-2009]

brianbwb asks, "... (What about) such perv sites that so far CBS has been unable to curb?"
---
If NetNanny and Cybersitter can market a good blacklist for perv websites that defeats even a teenage boy-guru-geek, CBS surely can manage its forum spammers. The spammers are paid by each post they make, and even more if that post links to a click-prospect on the counter.

More spammers are coming, the latest wave of nuisance from people like Richter. All of us wish spamlords many years in solitude-- forced to read his their own advertisements over and over and over again, while listening to the radio top 40 on an endless loop. Just as in real life!

But Richter or no Richter, CBS visitors are grateful for this news forum. What many do not realize, however, is we also help CBS pay its bills. CBS makes money from our gathering of heat, light and discussion, and the less trash on the CBS system, the more people will come. We participants move past advertising that otherwise might never be seen, and advertisers love it. They pay CBS well enough that no one is hurting-- except the readers.

The least CBS can do is take care of its little preserve of ideas, to keep it inviting for those who visit at CBS invitation. It costs more to recover former readers than to keep them.

PS: And while the CBS techs are at it, please fix the software glitch/setting that renders the input of a single apostrophe into two apostrophes. That is slackware!

[alphaa10-2009]

brianbwb asks, "... (What about) such perv sites that so far CBS has been unable to curb?"
---
If NetNanny and Cybersitter can market a good blacklist for perv websites that defeats even a teenage boy-guru-geek, CBS surely can manage its forum spammers. The spammers are paid by each post they make, and even more if that post links to a click-prospect on the counter.

More spammers are coming, the latest wave of nuisance from people like Richter. All of us wish spamlords many years in solitude-- forced to read his their own advertisements over and over and over again, while listening to the radio top 40 on an endless loop. Just as in real life!

But Richter or no Richter, CBS visitors are grateful for this news forum. What many do not realize, however, is we also help CBS pay its bills. CBS makes money from our gathering of heat, light and discussion, and the less trash on the CBS system, the more people will come. We participants move past advertising that otherwise might never be seen, and advertisers love it. They pay CBS well enough that no one is hurting-- except the readers.

The least CBS can do is take care of its little preserve of ideas, to keep it inviting for those who visit at CBS invitation. It costs more to recover former readers than to keep them.

PS: And while the CBS techs are at it, please fix the software glitch/setting that renders the input of a single apostrophe into two apostrophes. That is slackware!

[alphaa10-2009]

shanecv137 said, "If you''''re a cell phone company and have 1 million customers, and you send a bogus text message to each one of your customers every month that costs a dollar..."
---
You can phone customer service every time you get an unsolicited spam message, and the cumulative shock to the customer response system will bring the practice to an immediate halt. Like gasoline boycotts, though, it takes more people than are usually willing to play.

An alternative, while you are on the line with the customer service rep, is to request texting disabled for your account. Make sure the customer rep notes the reason for your decision, so that when the corporate PowerPoint graph plunges at the end of next month, J.B. in the executive offices willask, "Wha'' happened?"

[andor3]

"but the right wing nutballs still insist capitalism works best without regulation!"

that is absolutely true--IF you think the definition of "works" is to take money from consumers and give it to the rich and corporations, while preventing the consumer from having any recourse. which is what the right wing nutballs do think.

[irliberal]

Scott Richter is a thief and a criminal and should be put away for life. ANYONE who has a Verizion account should drop it immediately in protest - no reputable company should EVER do business with the likes of Scott Richter.

[piercetheval]

The *** microwaves these devices are putting out are of enough concern.

[tenielsen-2009]

i am a verizon wireless customer for about 1 to 15 years,and you pay 1.99 for each ring tone,but that is a one time pay only,not each month.the telphone companys have you,and you have to pay.
did you read the fine print?i was going to do it,but it reads per month,so i did not do it.

[rikedoid]

It''s time that a regulatory body stomped all over this type of garbage. Unfortunately these have all gone the way of the dodo as the corporations buy them off.
Nice system huh?
Boycott the offenders, it''s simple, attack their source of revenue ''til they clean up their act, don''t be lulled into being a bunch of consumers, AND - read the small print before you sign up folks, all of it.

[oleander8]

About the post by [alphaa10]...BRAVO!!! CBS needs to do a little maintenance and monitoring if they are going to sponsor this forum. DELETE the posts of people that ''creatively'' manage to get around the no-cursing rule. No one wants to read them, the same for duplicate posting, and private insult battles between posters. And finally, delete the posts of people who can''t stay on point of the article and turn every story into a political rant. Show some responsibility CBS, or just stop the forum idea altogether.

[psk123-2009]

I had a similar problem with AOL. They kept high-jacking my phone service after I used one of those "free" month of internet service. My phone bill sky-rocketed. I had to lock them out in writing with the phone company of my choice. But that was not enough, I also had to lock them out of my bank account as I was dumb enough to authorize a ONE TIME payment over the phone to end the relationship.

Many of these companies are not only unethical but out right theives.

[rowdytexan2]

Good Gawd, what a spoiled bunch we''ve become! What the hell does it matter what kinda noise a phone makes...one little squeak will let you know a call''s coming in, fer pete''s sakes!

[bookwerm314]

Call Verizon and any phone company that won''t remove these bogus charges, and if they won''t remove it, contact the Better Business Bureau, post to epinions, write in the papers, send letters to the editor, and generally try to destroy the business of the company that is hosing you over. This is just another example about the pathetic state of our federal and state agencies, they are industries bit c h and suck at the teat of bribes and payoffs. Your elected officials allowed this to happen.. they are not doing there job protecting consumers from abuse.. they are sold off by Bush and other local losers "running" things, but just *** up. God this sucks. CBS, thanks for bringing this to the light of day.. why not do a story about WHY they are getting away with it?

[bookwerm314]

Call Verizon and any phone company that won''t remove these bogus charges, and if they won''t remove it, contact the Better Business Bureau, post to epinions, write in the papers, send letters to the editor, and generally try to destroy the business of the company that is hosing you over. This is just another example about the pathetic state of our federal and state agencies, they are industries bit c h and suck at the teat of bribes and payoffs. Your elected officials allowed this to happen.. they are not doing there job protecting consumers from abuse.. they are sold off by Bush and other local losers "running" things, but just *** up. God this sucks. CBS, thanks for bringing this to the light of day.. why not do a story about WHY they are getting away with it?

[zeb_carter]

The phone manufacturers should include a data cable that connects to your computer and the software needed to synch your contacts and download ringtones from your computer YOU create from whatever source you have. But most providers don''t sell the cable/software and one has to go to a thrid-party solution. But it still beats the cost of ringtones from the provider or anyone else.

[missingamerica]

See?

Companies like Verizon are so honest, so concerned about being responsible corporate citizens, that OF COURSE they deserve retroactive legal immunity for their roles in handing over consumer voice and data information wholesale to the NSA without a court order...right?

I mean, with their sterling reputations, how could anyone believe that they''d EVER do anything that wasn''t on the "up and up"?

[klingon69]

I have never done business with AOL and suggest anyone who does so to reconsider his choice. AOL is one of the biggest thieves in the ISP business.
Posted by tuckerndfw at 11:21 AM : Feb 23, 2008
I worked in telemarketing (for about 3 months). One of our clients was AOL. We were supposed to call AOL customers and offer a 39.99 software package (special deal). Turns out, that everything in the package, Windows already gave you in 98.

[klingon69]

Good Gawd, what a spoiled bunch we''''ve become! What the hell does it matter what kinda noise a phone makes...one little squeak will let you know a call''''s coming in, fer pete''''s sakes!
Posted by RowdyTexan2 at 12:05 PM : Feb 23, 2008
Well, I use bluetooth. Using different ringtones helps me identify who''s calling without having to look at the caller-id. However, since you pay for ringtones, what happens when you change phones?

[rheola-2009]

Well, I use bluetooth. Using different ringtones helps me identify who''''s calling without having to look at the caller-id. However, since you pay for ringtones, what happens when you change phones?



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Posted by Klingon69 at 02:26 PM : Feb 23

Big deal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I find when I answer a call, my caller generally identifies themselves, I do not need silly little noises to identify people.

You must be frantic when you receive a call from an unknown person.

[rowdytexan2]

lol, What happened to "Hello, this is your mother...when will you be home?"