TelecomTV TelecomTV
  • News
  • Videos
  • Channels
  • Events
  • Directory
  • Smart Studio
  • Surveys
  • Debates
  • Perspectives
  • DSP Leaders World Forum
  • DSP Leaders
  • Great Telco Debate
    • |
    • Follow
    • |
    • Subscribe
  • |
  • More
  • Webcasts
  • Surveys
  • Debates
  • Perspectives
  • Great Telco Debate
  • |
  • Follow TelecomTV
  • |
    • Subscribe
    • |
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Help
  • Contact
  • Follow TelecomTV
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Help
  • Contact
  • Sign In Register Subscribe
    • Subscribe
    • Sign In
    • Register
  • Search

Tracker

TelecomTV TRACKER

Sourced by TelecomTV's TRACKER platform
from FCC Headlines

Tracker

GPSPS Fined $9M for Illegal Phone Co. Swaps, Charges, Fake Recordings

Via FCC Headlines

Jul 24, 2015

FCC FINES GPSPS $9.065 MILLION FOR ILLEGALLY BILLING CUSTOMERS AND SWITCHING THEIR PHONE COMPANIES

Long Distance Carrier Relied on Fabricated “Authorization” Recordings to Mislead the Commission and State Regulators

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2015 – The Federal Communications Commission has fined GPSPS, Inc., an Atlanta, GA telephone company, $9,065,000 for switching consumers’ long distance carriers without their authorization (“slamming”), billing consumers for unauthorized charges (“cramming”), and submitting falsified evidence to government regulatory officials as “proof” that consumers had authorized the company to switch their long distance providers.

“Companies that engage in these practices betray consumers who trust that their telephone bills will contain only authorized charges,” said Travis LeBlanc, Chief of the Enforcement Bureau. “Today’s announcement makes clear that the FCC will take strong action against those who switch consumers’ telephone carriers without authorization and then mislead the government to try to avoid detection.”

The Enforcement Bureau reviewed more than 150 complaints against GPSPS that consumers filed with the Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Public Utility Commission of Texas, and the Better Business Bureau. Consumers complained that GPSPS switched their long distance service provider without their authorization even though they had never heard of or spoken to the company before discovering GPSPS’s charges on their telephone bills. In many cases, GPSPS refused to refund all of the unauthorized fees it charged consumers. Instead, the company misrepresented to consumers that they or someone in their household had authorized GPSPS’s service, and that GPSPS possessed an audio recording evidencing the authorization. The audio “verification” recordings GPSPS mentioned to consumers were fake. GPSPS submitted these fabricated recordings to the Commission and state regulatory authorities as “proof” that the consumers authorized its service.

With today’s action, the Commission has now taken more than 30 enforcement actions for cramming or slamming in the past five years. These actions have announced more than $100 million in penalties, and are slated to return more than $250 million to consumers. For more information about the FCC’s rules protecting consumers from unauthorized charges on phone bills, see the FCC consumer guide, Cramming – Unauthorized, Misleading, or Deceptive Charges Placed on Your Telephone Bill.

Related Topics
  • Announcement,
  • FCC,
  • Government,
  • News,
  • North America,
  • Tracker

More Like This

5G

Nokia and WEG Brazil launch Industry 4.0 project with 5G standalone private wireless

Mar 5, 2021

Digital Platforms & Services

DISH selects Amdocs’ cloud-native billing platform to support 5G services

Mar 5, 2021

Cloud Native

DZS Acquires Network Orchestration and Software Automation Innovator RIFT

Mar 4, 2021

Access Evolution

Ciena reports fiscal first quarter 2021 financial results

Mar 4, 2021

Digital Platforms & Services

Digital Realty lays out industry manifesto for enabling connected data communities

Mar 4, 2021

This content extract was originally sourced from an external website (FCC Headlines) and is the copyright of the external website owner. TelecomTV is not responsible for the content of external websites. Legal Notices

Email Newsletters

Stay up to date with the latest industry developments: sign up to receive TelecomTV's top news and videos plus exclusive subscriber-only content direct to your inbox – including our daily news briefing and weekly wrap.

Subscribe

Top Picks

Highlights of our content from across TelecomTV today

18:24

How Zoom evolved in the pandemic era

26:24

Red Hat and HPE discuss how to support open multi-vendor 5G network slices

14:28

How RADCOM is helping Rakuten Mobile run its innovative 5G network

8:33

Monetizing innovative telco edge services

  • TelecomTV
  • Decisive Media

TelecomTV is produced by the team at Decisive Media

Menu
  • News
  • Videos
  • Channels
  • Directory
  • Smart Studio
 
  • Surveys
  • Debates
  • Perspectives
  • Events
  • About Us
Our Brands
  • TelecomTV Tracker
  • TelecomTV Perspectives
  • DSP Leaders
  • DSP Leaders World Forum
  • The Great Telco Debate
Get In Touch
[email protected]
+44 (0) 207 448 1070

Request a Media Pack

Follow
  • © Decisive Media Limited 2021. All rights reserved. All brands and products are the trademarks of their respective holder(s).
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Legal Notices