WASHINGTON — Federal regulators are accusing Sprint Corp. of illegally billing its wireless customers hundreds of millions of dollars in charges for text message alerts and other services that they didn’t order.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Wednesday that it has sued the third-largest U.S. cellphone carrier over billing for unauthorized charges, a practice known as “cramming.” The agency said Sprint failed to oversee third-party companies, allowing illegal charges to be put on customers’ bills. Over a decade, consumers were charged for items like cellphone ringtones or horoscope text messages they didn’t want or sign up for, the regulators said.
Because Sprint profited from the billing system, receiving up to 40 percent of the revenue from the charges, “there was little incentive for (Sprint) to put a stop to them,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray told reporters Wednesday.
Sprint, based in Overland Park, Kan., disputed the allegations and invited customers to contact the company if they thought they had been charged improperly.
