The court based its ruling on a prior interpretation by the Federal Communications Commission: “The FCC has explicitly stated that the TCPA’s prohibition…‘encompasses both voice calls and text calls to wireless numbers including, for example, short message service (SMS) calls,’” the opinion explained, “[W]e find that the FCC’s interpretation of the TCPA is reasonable, and therefore afford it deference to hold that a text message is a “call” within the TCPA.”

The case was brought by Laci Statterfield, whose young son received a text in the middle of the night warning him that the “next call you take may be your last.” It turned out the text message was a promotion for the Stephen King horror book “The Cell.” The district court initially dismissed the case, finding that the TCPA did not apply to these text messages and further that Satterfield had consented to receive text messages by downloading a free ringtone from an unrelated website. The appellate court rejected both arguments.

The suit is brought on behalf of a putative class of 60,000 people, each of whom could receive a minimum of $500 and as much as $1,500 each if it is determined that the violation was intentional.

Satterfield is represented by John G. Jacobs of The Jacobs Law Firm, who argued the appeal, as well as his partner Bryan Kolton and Jay Edelson and Myles McGuire of KamberEdelson, LLC. About Jay Edelson:

a

–Report Unauthorized Cell Phone Charges–

According to the The Kansas City Star in “Suit alleges Sprint Nextel charged customers for unauthorized content,” Sprint Nextel Corp. is the “latest wireless carrier to be hit with a lawsuit alleging it charged customers for unauthorized ‘mobile content,’ including ringtones, sports scores and weather reports.”

The putative class action lawsuit was filed in Lyon County, Kansas, and then removed to federal court by Sprint. The Kansas City Star reports that the case is one of “several dozen similar class-actions filed across the country against the nation’s largest wireless carriers.”

“It really is the Wild West out there,” according to lead plaintiff’s attorney in the Kansas case, Jay Edelson of KamberEdelson, LLC in Chicago. “You’ve got thousands of very small companies who sell mobile content, and if they have your cell phone number they can start charging you.”

Edelson is reported to have said that about 30 putative class-action lawsuits have been filed nationwide by consumers over unauthorized charges on their cell phone bills.

–Report Unauthorized Cell Phone Charges–

a

If you were, you are definitely not alone. Thousands of cell phone subscribers have shared their stories and experiences about this emerging problem facing cell phone customers and users nationwide. And they are not happy.

Mystery Charges? Phantom Billings?

Cell phone users have complained about mysterious or phantom charges appearing on their cell phone bills and accounts out of the blue, charges they claim were never authorized, for mobile content services and subscriptions they never heard of, from mobile content companies and merchants they often never knew existed, and for products they never wanted nor ever even received. These customers are upset, and rightly so.

They claim that money has literally been stolen away from them by their mobile telephone carriers and wireless service providers, from billing agents and billing aggregators and the mobile content providers or merchants, all of whom share in such premium SMS content revenues.

The “Third Party Charge” Wild Goose Chase

Cell phone customers say that when they call to complain (if they are lucky enough to find contact information and are able to actually speak to a human — a rarity) they are usually told that they simply must have authorized it. Ya right. They then are sent on a wild goose chase from carrier, to billing aggregator and to content provider, each of whom blame the other for the unauthorized third party charges.

Sometimes credits or refunds are given, usually weeks or months later — after persistent calls, complaints and customer threats — and then typically only partially, with the customer getting credits and refunds for only a small portion of the unauthorized charges. Of course, the customer will have spent considerable and valuable time uncovering, understanding and disputing the fraudulent charges.

The Cancellation | Un-Subscription Problem

Unfortunately, the charges are typically recurring (renewing each week, month, etc.), so the cycle repeats, unless the customer is lucky (and persistent enough) to be able to cancel or unsubscribe from the mobile content subscription that the cell phone customer was never subscribed to in the first place. Ironic, isn’t it?

The cell phone customers say that they are told to send an outgoing or reply text message (which typically costs them more money) to the content provider’s five (5) digit short code with words like stop, end, cancel, quit, unsubscribe, etc. Some users have reported getting more unauthorized charges (and more SMS text spam) after doing so. Others have reported being told that they were never subscribed to such services (well why were they being charged then?).

Some users are told that before they can cancel they need to provide their cell phone numbers and other personal information (addresses, etc.) to the billing aggregators and agents and mobile content providers — the same companies that charged them for products and services without authorization or permission (or spammed them with SMS text messages, etc.).

Tip of the Iceberg?

And these are just some of the stories we have heard…

If you were you charged on your wireless cell phone bill for mobile content subscriptions or services (i.e., ringtones, games, joke a day messages, premium text messaging services, SMS text alerts, horoscopes, etc.) that you never authorized, ordered or received, remember this:

You are not alone!

If you haven’t been hit yet with these unauthorized charges, god bless you (though, please keep your fingers crossed). If you are like everyone else and haven’t shared your story yet, please do so below.

–Report Unauthorized Cell Phone Charges–

a

You ought to check it out…

a

According to the article, one such victim received a text message advertisement (i.e., spam) out of the blue that said, “you’ve qualified for a free ringtone,” and they sent it to her three times. Of course, she was a minor so she asked her Mom for permission, but her mother wisely told her no.  She never asked for the initial text message (i.e., she never opted in) and never “double opted-in.”  Instead, she replied to the text message with the words “no,” as in no thank you, not interested. etc.

Turns out a charge for $19.99 showed up on her phone bill the next month and when her mom tried to get it removed, the cellular telephone company told her it was a monthly subscription and that it couldn’t be stopped.

According to the article, last year the FCC ordered millions of dollars returned to angry cell phone customers who said they were scammed and crammed by their cell phone carriers, cell phone billing aggregators and mobile content providers, all of whom get a cut of the revenue from these unauthorized cell phone charges.

If you were charged on your cell phone bill for mobile or wireless content subscriptions (i.e., for ringtones, premium text messaging services, ring tones, joke a day programs, wallpaper, screensavers, text alerts, etc.) that you never ordered, authorized or wanted, tell us your story. 

–Report Unauthorized Cell Phone Charges–

a

She didn’t say who spammed her phone, but did say that she called Cingular pre-paid customer service number, explained her problem and requested that text messaging functionality be removed from her account.  She says that they told her that they couldn’t do it. 

She responds,”So are you telling me that I’m paying for cell phone minutes and anyone can send me a text message of any length and subscribe me to any text messaging service and I have to pay even though I have not authorized that charge?”

Report Unauthorized Cell Phone Bill Charges 

a

His latest piece says about text spam “They are unwanted messages on what might be an unwanted service, but you may get stuck paying for them anyway. ”

“After years of trying, spammers have finally figured out how to crash the text message party. Cell phone text spam is much, much worse than e-mail spam, junk mail, or even telemarketing calls for one simple reason: Recipients have to pay for it.”

He says you might consider turning off your phone’s text messaging capabilities in order to prevent cell phone spam, but cautions that some carriers won’t even allow you to shut your telephone’s text message service off.

 Of course, you can always Report Unauthorized Cell Phone Bill Charges to your favorite class action attorneys.

a

“In my latest bill from Sprint, I found a charge of $9.99 monthly of premium service (ringtones, etc..). I placed a call to Sprint representative and learned the charges came from Dadamobile.com, which is a provider of ringtones and other cell phone downloads. Of course I did not subscribe to such services.”

“As suggested by the Sprint rep, I placed a call to Dadamobile.com at 888-214-0381 and sent a SMS text STOP to 63232 as to stop the charges. Please note this can also happen to AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon etc…Alternatively you can call your carrier representative and ask them to block 63262.”

Are you an SMS scam victim? Let us know.

a

“So I’m sitting here at my desk and my phone plays its “you have a text message” tune. Three times. Not being a teenaged girl, you might imagine the number of text messages I get is pretty low, so this is unusual. I look at the messages, and they are all from 90900, the Joke of the Day mobile phone service (jokemobi.com).”

“The first message gives me the PIN I will need to start the service, and the next two messages are a second invitation and the first joke.”

“I NEVER ASKED TO GET THIS and I din’t reply with the PIN number to start the service, but just to be safe I call AT&T and what do you know, WITHOUT MY PERMISSION they have enrolled me in this and already charged me $9.99.”

The L.A. blogger says she’d “love to know how many other people here have had this happen, and if any lawyers are interested in making these guys stop. I’m thinking class action lawsuits probably work that way.”

“It’s not just them sending unsolicited invitations (which suck because I’m charged for text messages) – what totally freaks me out that they just signed me up and started charging me without my permission.”

“How many people are being charged by them (and maybe others like them) without their knowledge???”

–Report Unauthorized Cell Phone Charges–

a

“I never subscribed to Blinko yet was receiving text messages that were costing me money. I have never heard of MQube until I read the name on the bill.
No-one has had the opportunity to use my phone. Yet, as per the Cingular rep, someone doesn’t need my phone to sign me up. They can just enter my # on the providers site and I will get billed for it! There are no checks and balances to ensure that I am signing up for my own # and not someone else playing a joke”

Has this happened to you, too?

a

Bottom line:  you are not alone.

a

http://www.wikihow.com/Dispute-Your-Cell-Phone-Bill

a

“It’s the new way of stealing money from people. Unwillingly sign them up for a phone “service” like ring tones or the ability to receive spam text messages. For some things, all it takes is the cell phone number, and they can spam you. I only found out about this because ONCE A WEEK, my brother is getting charged $5.99 by something called funmobile on his sprint acount and we are still trying to find out how to cancel it. He’s never heard of the company, let alone even downloaded a single ringtone (which it is bad enough would cost any money at all) from the company. Meanwhile, the company records a record high in their services, gee what a surprise you slimy bastards, STEALING MONEY FROM PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO STOP YOU AND LEAVING YOUR VIRTUAL BUSINESS CARD (with no contact information) TO MAKE IT FEEL LEGITIMIT IS EVIL AND MUST BE STOPED.”

a

According to Home User Security “To be in business all you need is a short code and an interconnection agreement, which can be had for less than a few thousand dollars. You can then fool some sucker (often a child) into sending you a text message and then you can tack absurd charges (which can recur weekly) onto their phone bill with virtual impunity.

These charges are billed with little or no disclosure and wireless phone companies threaten to disrupt service if these third party charges are not paid. (I’ve been through this once with a friend and trust me, it was not pleasant.)”

a

“To preface my rant, i was looking at my cingular bill yesterday, and waaaaay at the bottom of my bill, i notice three separate $9.99 charges. These charges, supposedly from a company called mQube, were some sort of subscription service for ringtones. Now, I dont really download ringtones, most of my tones are mp3s that I transferred to my phone myself, so I was kind of curious as to what this was, and why I was being charged for something that I never asked for, nor got any goods from.”

“So, i inspected my bill a bit more. I went on cingular’s site, and looked at each of my bills for the past year, and there it was too: two to three seperate $9.99 charges on each bill! I called Cingular customer service and let them know of my discovery, while i was still checking my other bills. The man I talked to found a few of them as well, and gave me a credit of $116 to my bill, and said that if I found any other charges like this, to call back. So I did just that, I checked each of my bills, all the way back to when i first opened my account, and i found a grand total of THIRTY-FIVE of these charges, totalling over $370.00. I called back, and let the next rep know what was going on.”

According to Godden “This is when the frustration started. I talked to 3 more reps from that point on, all giving me the same speech. ‘We’re sorry, but we can’t give you a credit, as you already had one.’ Yes, I did, but $116 is not $370, i would inform them. ‘We cant go back more than 3 months to credit previous bills’ and ‘It is your responsibility to check your bills for inconsistencies’.”

Godden continues “So, its ok for my cell phone company to sneak in charges, as long as John Q. Public doesnt notice them, it makes it ok? The general public shouldnt have to be looking over their shoulder, expecting everyone they do business with to screw them. Personally, I think you should be able to trust your phone company, or your cable company. You shouldn’t have to watch your bills like a hawk to see if they are screwing you.”

“After 5 hours on the phone with them, emotions ranging from calm to furious, with no progress, i decided to collect my evidence, and go to my local Cingular store in the mall. I was a man on a mission. Seething, I entered the mall, fully intent on being escorted out by mall security. I walked into the Cingular store, and I was greeted by a guy about half my size. I asked him if there was somewhere that we could chat in private, and we went to a small area in the back of the store.”

“I explained my situation to him, showed him the dates and charges i had written down, and told him that I expected an additional credit of $250, the remainder of the $370 I was charged over the past year. I dont know if it was the fact that I was twice his size, and very angry, or the fact that I threatened to close my account with them, but he seemed to have no problem giving me the credit after going over my evidence.”

a

“The Florida Attorney General’s Office has launched an investigation into a Watertown-based cell phone company after receiving complaints that customers were being charged for services they didn’t use.

Attorney General Bill McCollum’s office said it has received 20 complaints from cell phone users who found charges from VeriSign subsidiary company m-Qube on their phone bills. The most common charge was $9.99, buried in the “other provider services” section of customer bills.

The investigation began last week, but Massachusetts cell phone customers earlier this year filed a class action suit against m-Qube. Bay State customers claim they received recycled cell phone numbers from providers, and then m-Qube billed them for services attached to the recycled numbers’ previous owners.”

According to the article:

“The m-Qube website FAQ page is flush with answers about unwanted billing. ‘Who is m-Qube, I never signed up for anything with m-Qube,’ reads one question on the site. The m-Qube response: ‘the mobile content vendor is responsible for answering any questions regarding billing, and contacting them directly is the quickest way to resolve any concerns.’ Questions about how to get a refund for unwanted bills are similarly referred to the original vendor.”

a

“When we get a bill that run a few pages long, we tend to check the main numbers and not the details unless there is a big change from month to month.

It happened to me with my Cell Phone bill until I noticed a suspicious charge last month for something we did not order. The new invoice that I just received included the same charge so I reviewed 10 months worth of undue charges. It is always the same amount $10. Multiply this by 10 and someone has been making around $100 off my back.

I called at&t (my wireless provider), and they credited me for 3 months of undue charges. I still had to call Mqube now part of Verisign to ask them to stop any future billing and find out the origin of the $10 charge. They did not know offhand but told me they would find out.

So a word of advice, when you get your cell phone bill, scan it for suspicious charges.

It could save you enough money for a good meal out.”

a