AOL to refund customers for unauthorized charges
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(InfoWorld) - AOL will pay more than $3 million to settle complaints that it charged customers for unauthorized services. The settlement money will go to 48 states and the District of Columbia, which plan to use the money in various ways, typically for consumer education and to fund consumer-fraud investigations. In addition to the $3 million, AOL agreed to offer refunds to consumers who complain to the company or through the offices of states' attorneys general. AOL must refund consumers who complain of unauthorized charges for services, the states say. AOL also agreed to improve the way that customers can cancel their services. Previously, most customers could only cancel their service by calling AOL. But AOL customer service representatives received incentives for retaining customers. As a result, many customers complained that it was very difficult and in some cases impossible to cancel their service, according to the Arkansas attorney general's office. In Illinois, customers who tried to cancel their services were often offered a free month of service as an incentive to stick with AOL, said that state's attorney general office. After the free month, customers would try again to cancel but customer care representatives would pressure them to stay. Some consumers said that they thought they'd cancelled their service only to continue receiving bills for the service. To address the problem,Â AOL set up an Internet siteÂ that customers can use to cancel their service. In addition, when customers cancel, AOL must clearly disclose the amount of time remaining on the account and provide a confirmation number showing that the customer cancelled the service. AOL made many of the changes during 2005 and 2006 on a voluntary basis nationwide, said AOL spokeswoman Amy Call. The settlement "puts to rest any remaining issues related to our old access business model," she said in a statement. Many customers may have recently begun trying to cancel their service because AOL is in the midst of a business transition. It now offers free e-mail services and grants anyone access to its portal, in hopes of earning revenue from advertisements. AOL still offers dial-up Internet access and a tech support service for a fee.
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An insistent upgrade alert from AOL is annoying some users of its IM service.
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Time Warner Inc.  on Wednesday  said its AOL unit will no longer charge high-speed Internet  users for e-mail and other Web services in a gambit to attract  more viewers and boost online advertising.
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Time Warner Inc. said Wednesday that it is creating a $500 million reserve in response to the federal investigations of its America Online unit and that it also will restate AOL Europe's financial results for 2000 and 2001.  -The Washington Post
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The Internet's key oversight agency is taking a preliminary step toward combating domain name tasting Â the online equivalent of buying expensive clothes on a charge card only to return them for a full refund after wearing them to a party.
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A service is accused of $200 million in false charges for dishonest online sellers and telemarketers.
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AOL has agreed to make it easier for its remaining customers to leave as part of a $3 million settlement.
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America Online is teaming up with RSA Security in an effort to keep its users safe from online fraud and identity theft. RSA and AOL are announcing a new program called &quot;AOL PassCode&quot; that will encourage AOL
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Washington Gas Light is set to issue refunds to its residential and commercial gas customers in Virginia after agreeing to lower the rates it has been charging since February, the company said last week.
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Snared A California fraudster who posed as a rep from AOL's billing department in order to trick users into handing over financial details was jailed for 70 months (five years and 10 months) on Monday, Information Week reports.â¦
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Averting a looming court battle over how it has handled the exodus from its Internet dial-up service, AOL has agreed to make it easier for its remaining customers to leave as part of a $3 million settlement with 48 states and the District of Columbia.
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A broadband provider prevented customers from using its service, company says.
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DULLES, Va. - Short text advertisements touting AOL products and services are now being tacked to the bottom of e-mail messages sent from some AOL accounts.
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Time Warner Inc. will pay $210 million to settle charges that its America Online unit fraudulently inflated its revenue figures. Separately, it is expected to pay about $300 million to settle SEC charges related to its buyout of a stake held by Germany's Bertelsmann AG in AOL Europe.
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(InfoWorld) - Three people have sued AOL LLC over the company'sÂ controversial release of member search-engine records, in what their lawyers are billing as the first such lawsuit seeking national class action status. The three AOL members charge the Time Warner Inc. subsidiary with, among other things, privacy violation, false advertising and unjust enrichment. Two unnamed AOL members residing in California, and Kasadore Ramkissoon, who lives in New York, filed their lawsuit on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit seeks monetary relief for all affected AOL members in the U.S. whose search data was disclosed without consent from January 1, 2004 until the present. The plaintiffs also ask the court to instruct AOL not to store or maintain users' Web search records, and to destroy the Web search records it currently has. The lawsuit stems from AOL's decision to post on its research Web site about 20 million search records from about 658,000 of its members, covering the three-month period between March and May. AOL didn't disclose the names of the members, but it grouped each member's records with a unique number. This made it possible to see what each individual searched for. The data included search queries, as well as Web sites the members clicked on to. When the issue became a privacy scandal in August, AOL apologized and pulled the data from the Web site, but by then the data set had been downloaded multiple times and the records remain available online. The records contain sensitive information like credit card, telephone and Social Security numbers, birth dates, full names and addresses. The New York Times tracked down one of the affected members and, with her permission, interviewed and identified her. The law firm Berman DeValerio Pease Tabacco Burt & Pucillo represents the plaintiffs. A copy of the complaint is posted on theÂ law firm's Web site. The scandal has had significant repercussions within AOL. Its Chief Technology Officer Maureen Govern resigned and two other employeesÂ were fired. Last week, in an e-mail sent to all employees and obtained by IDG News Service, AOL's Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Miller referred to the incident as "the search data debacle" and announced AOL plans to hire, for the first time ever, a chief privacy officer. In the e-mail, Miller outlined a reorganization of AOL's business structure, which will include a unit solely dedicated to what he termed the "protection" of AOL consumers. Last week, in its latest search engine usage study, Nielsen/NetRatings reported that in August, people in the U.S. ran 18.2 percent fewer queries on AOL's search engine, compared with August 2005. Nielsen/NetRatings didn't venture any explanations for the drop, but industry observers have pointed directly at the search data scandal as the culprit. Among the top five search engine providers, AOL was the only one whose usage share shrunk last month. The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission against AOL in August over the search data release. AOL declined to provide comment for this story. Â
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Averting a looming court battle over how it has handled the exodus from its Internet dial-up service, AOL has agreed to make it easier for its remaining customers to leave as part of a $3 million settlement with 48 states and the District of Columbia.
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Looking for new ways to boost its revenue, America Online is launching an online shopping service that won&#39;t require an AOL account to access.