Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that his office has reached a $1 million settlement with a Hong Kong-based company that creates and distributes content for cell phones. Building on earlier agreements with advertising networks and a major wireless carrier, the agreement with MobileFunster, Inc., which does business as FunMobile, is the first CyberFraud agreement the Attorney General's Office has negotiated with a mobile content provider and addresses another link in a business model that includes wireless carriers, billing aggregators, advertising networks, and content providers like FunMobile.
"As the first content provider to adopt advertising standards created by this office, FunMobile has clearly stated its intent to lead mobile content providers in setting new marketing standards that will benefit Florida consumers and cell phone users nationwide," said Attorney General McCollum.
The large number of CyberFraud complaints prompted the Attorney General to transition his CyberFraud Task Force to a permanent CyberFraud section within his Economic Crimes Division. These complaints also led to a widespread investigation which revealed thousands of cell phone consumers had received charges on their cell phone bills for third party services or content they did not authorize. FunMobile provides mobile content, usually ringtones or wallpaper for an individual's cell phone, which was marketed by way of internet advertising that often failed to clearly and conspicuously describe the price and terms of service for the content. Often, the content, which is usually advertised as "free," results in customers unwittingly being signed up for costly monthly subscriptions.
Today's agreement with FunMobile requires that the price of cell phone content or services and other material terms of purchase be conspicuously disclosed on all online ordering screens. The new standard will ensure that consumers will see and comprehend the terms and conditions of the purchase offered them.
In addition to the new injunctive standard, the agreement also provides for a payment of $1 million to the Attorney General to be used to fund additional investigations into CyberFraud and to further CyberSafety education. The Attorney General encouraged any Florida consumers who believe they have been victimized by unauthorized charges for mobile content to contact their wireless cell phone carrier for refunds.
A copy of the settlement agreement with FunMobile is available here.