VIII. AMERICATEL VIOLATED P.U. CODE SECTION §2890 (a) BY PLACING UNAUTHORIZED CHARGES ON CONSUMERS' TELEPHONE BILLS AND BY OVERCHARGING THEM

Based on Staff's analysis of consumer complaints, interviews with and declarations from complainants, and Americatel's own admission, 61,097 consumers were crammed due to the fraudulent actions of Americatel's marketing agent. Americatel is responsible for the actions of its marketing vendor yet it failed to conduct due diligence of Bravo prior to entering into a marketing relationship and did not adequately monitor Bravo's actions. Such failure caused the placement of unauthorized charges on consumers' telephone bills, in violation of P.U. Code§2890 (a), which requires that: "A telephone bill may only contain charges for products or services, the purchase of which the subscriber has authorized." In addition, Americatel admitted to overcharging customers $2 million by applying the wrong USF rate and applying higher per minute plan rates than those authorized by the customers. Both actions violate P.U. Code§ 2890 (a).