Something to Know - 18 December

With the amount of news stories that were dumped upon us yesterday, it is impossible to pick just one to highlight for your  consumption.  So, instead, I found this one that is just an also-ran that no one will pay attention to, but which demonstrates the effectiveness of the work that Elizabeth Warren did in getting and pushing a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau agency established and running.   There are so many instances and examples of corporations who just run rough-shod over us, that it takes a federal agency to push these abuses back.  No private business could ever do this:

Technology | Business Day | Personal Tech

Thursday, December 18, 2014

For the latest updates, go to nytimes.com/bits »

Morning Report Regulators Investigate Unauthorized Cellphone Charges at Sprint |The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Communications Commission are targeting Sprint in an investigation into whether the company illegally billed customers tens of millions of dollars for unauthorized charges related to premium text messages, Edward Wyatt reports. The consumer bureau sued Sprint in Federal District Court in Manhattanon Wednesday, accusing Sprint of operating a billing system that allowed third parties to "cram" unauthorized charges onto consumers' mobile phone bills. The F.C.C. is conducting a similar investigation, and people close to the investigation said the parties were close to completing a settlement under which Sprint would pay $105 million in refunds and restitution for the unauthorized transactions. "Consumers ended up paying tens of millions of dollars in unauthorized charges, even though many of them had no idea that third parties could even place charges on their bills," said Richard Cordray, director of the consumer bureau. "As the use of mobile payments grows, we will continue to hold wireless carriers accountable for illegal third-party billing." Read more »

 

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Juan
 

I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.

-- H.L. Mencken