CAB Complaint Number 42688: I need help in having a charge removed from my phone bill. I am enclosing a copy of my AT&T phone bill showing a charge from a third party-OSP Communications in the amount of $7.38. To begin with this is a fax number with no phone....⁵⁷

CAB Complaint Number 39568: Allowing OSP COMMUNICATIONS" to make collect random phone calls from my landline. The phone call was supposedly made at 3:04pm on Tuesday April 7. Impossible because I was at work. This company engages in the practice of cramming. AT& T states I have to deal with OSP regarding these charges. But it is impossible to reach a human at so called OSP communications.⁵⁸

B. federal trade commission records contain consumer complaints against osp for unauthorized collect call charges

Staff reviewed the OSP complaint data contained in the FTC Sentinel database for the period October 2007 through June 2009 and noted complaints from 15 California consumers that are similar to the CAB complaint alleging OSP charged them for collect calls that they neither received nor authorized.⁵⁹ The California consumers complained of charges ranging from $7.00 to $1,554.00 (a business line).

C. websites show consumer complaints of unauthorized collect call charges from osp

Staff searched the internet and found various websites that detailed complaints regarding OSP (see Table 3 below). Similar to the CAB and FTC complainants, these consumers complained of charges for collect calls that they did not authorize.⁶⁰

Table 3

OSP Communications Website Complaints

D. declarations from complainants show osp crammed them

In view of the complaints Staff found in the CAB and FTC databases and the internet, Staff attempted to contact complainants to verify the complaint details and to obtain copies of their telephone bills. Using the list of complainants from the CAB and FTC databases, Staff was able to interview 13 complainants about their experiences with OSP (11 from CAB and 2 from FTC).⁶¹ Staff also obtained from these complainants declarations attesting that they did not authorize the collect calls OSP charged them. Staff was able to verify, through a review of the customers' telephone bills that except for one complainant, OSP's charges were placed on their bills. The consumers' declarations support Staff's conclusion that OSP placed unauthorized charges on their telephone bills. (See further discussion in Section IV.A.1., regarding the absence of supporting call records for the collect calls charged to these declarants.)

⁵⁷ Id.

⁵⁸ Id.

⁵⁹ Attachment 22C (Printout of Complaint Data from the Federal Trade Commission).

⁶⁰ Attachment 23 (Printout of Complaint Data from the Internet).

⁶¹ Attachment 24 (Declarations of Complainants).