Hung Up by That 900 Number?

Dial a 900 number on your phone and chances are good that you will reach a legitimate business providing information that you want and are willing to pay for--weather data, say, or entertainment programs, stock market quotations and the like. But along with the useful can come the sleazy. Complaints are rising about 900 prefixes that are used as vehicles to defraud and deceive the public, ripping off millions of dollars a year from unwary consumers. Responding to the problem, the Federal Communications Commission has proposed some useful new rules.

The first thing the FCC wants to do is require 900 services to answer each call with a short message giving the price of the call and the nature of the product or service provided. Customers who decide they aren’t interested and hang up would not be billed for the call. Under current procedure, billing commences as soon as a call begins. Customers would also be given the option of blocking all access to 900 numbers, a major aim being to keep children who don’t understand the costs involved from repeatedly dialing that prefix.

Abuses of pay-for-service calls have led to more than 2,000 complaints to the FCC in the past few months. Findings by a task force of state attorneys general support the FCC’s conclusions that phony or misleading solicitations and hidden charges represent problems that threaten to get out of hand. The FCC proposes to act to protect both consumers and legitimate providers of 900 services. The move is welcome.