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Public Affairs coverage from our award-winning staff |
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Governor Signs Law to Ban Phone Companies from Cramming
Produced by Sean Crawford on Monday, November 30, 2009
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A new state law is aimed at companies who add charges to telephone bills without the consumer's consent. The practice is known as "cramming," and it was already illegal in Illinois.
But the state is now requiring firms to disclose the additional charges up front and have an independent third party get confirmation from the phone customer. David Kolata, with the watchdog Citizens Utility Board, says cramming has become more common over the past year.
KOLATA: In some cases they'll find out you clicked on a website and unintentionally signed up or maybe you filled out a raffle form and they put a charge on. But in a lot of cases there's no indication why its there in the first place. The stronger consumer protections that are in this bill we think are going to go a long way to solving this problem.
Kolata says internet related add-ons or enhanced voice mail services are the most common types of unauthorized charges.
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