Protecting Consumers From Unauthorized Carrier Changes and Related Unauthorized Charges

In this document, the Commission proposes to amend its rules to prohibit carriers from misrepresenting themselves when placing telemarketing sales calls to consumers and placing unauthorized charges on their phone bills. The Commission seeks comment on ways to strengthen its rules to protect consumers from slamming and cramming and proposes to codify a rule prohibiting misrepresentations on carrier telemarketing calls to consumers that often precede a carrier switch, and proposes to codify a rule against cramming. The intended effect of this action is to prevent unscrupulous carriers from targeting vulnerable populations from committing fraud either on sales calls or when ``verifying'' a consumer switch.