A top Senate Democrat has gone after a...
A top Senate Democrat has gone after a billing aggregator with a subpoena over concerns about wireless bill cramming. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., issued the subpoena Thursday to Los Angeles-based Mobile Messenger, he said in a Friday…
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news release (http://1.usa.gov/1krgieS). Rockefeller had requested information from Mobile Messenger in March 2013 and followed up on that request last November. “Unfortunately, one year after my March 2013 request, major gaps remain in Mobile Messenger’s response,” Rockefeller told what seems to be the former Mobile Messenger CEO Michael Iaccarino in a letter accompanying the subpoena. “You failed to respond to my request to identify your third-party vendors, their officers, other names under which these companies may have done business, and the total charges you helped these companies place on consumer bills.” Iaccarino has not led Mobile Messenger since 2011, according to his biography on Infogroup’s website, where he’s listed as chairman and CEO of that company (http://bit.ly/1gxq4rk). Rockefeller has addressed at least three letters to Iaccarino, listing him as the CEO of Mobile Messenger, in the last year. Rockefeller Thursday complained of heavily redacted contracts with carriers that the company had supplied. These redactions “impede” committee staff from reviewing “basic contract terms,” he said. Mobile Messenger had provided a detailed letter last May, but a case brought by the Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott in November against Mobile Messenger and five third-party vendors “raised serious questions,” said Rockefeller. The Texas AG in a November court document attacked Mobile Messenger as being “involved in virtually all aspects of the [premium short messaging services]PSMS program, orchestrating and facilitating the entire deceptive scheme,” which involved the placement of “unauthorized, misleading, and deceptive PSMS charges on consumers’ mobile phone bills, a practice commonly referred to as cramming,” it said (http://bit.ly/1gjppZO). Rockefeller’s subpoena calls for “information including the identity of Mobile Messenger’s third-party vendors and the amount they have charged consumers, consumer complaints received by the company, and unredacted contracts with carriers,” and “communications related to the cramming scheme alleged in the Texas Attorney General’s action,” the news release said. Mobile Messenger and Iaccarino didn’t comment, and Rockefeller’s office didn’t immediately respond to a query on whether Iaccarino still leads the company.