Our New Website
On Stolen Phone Safety

Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on May 3, 2012 at 10:56 am

By Jim Bugel, AT&T Assistant Vice President, Public Safety and Homeland Security

This week, we launched our new website to help better educate our customers on protecting their wireless devices and their personal information.  You might recall that, just a few weeks ago, we joined our fellow wireless carriers, law enforcement, Senator Schumer and Chairman Genachowski at an FCC event that focused on industry efforts to address the problem of stolen devices.

The new website, which can be found at www.att.com/stolenphone, focuses on the critical importance of passwords – not only to protect the device but the account as well.  We encourage our customers to also change their passwords. Often.  We also provide guidance on downloading apps that help to protect devices and personal information. We further offer a tutorial on how to back up SIM card contacts.  And last, but certainly not least, we provide the steps a customer should take in the event their device is lost or stolen. 

Our many efforts to tackle the challenges that stem from the theft of wireless devices are well underway.  And our work with the industry as well as governments and the law enforcement community continues. So, stay tuned for more updates as we roll out additional educational tools and materials (and the new database to identify and disable stolen devices) over the coming months.

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AT&T Statement on ‘Cramming’

Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on April 27, 2012 at 1:14 pm

The following statement may be attributed to an AT&T spokesperson:

“AT&T takes the problem of unauthorized third-party charges, or cramming, very seriously.  We provide our customers with tools to understand and manage legitimate third-party charges on their phone bills and we have also put in place an aggressive anti-cramming program that includes strict requirements for customer authorization of third-party charges, monthly tracking of cramming complaints and audits of third-party billers.  In addition, last month, we announced that we would limit third-party charges on wireline bills to certain types of charges that are less likely to create opportunities for cramming.  The industry as a whole has worked cooperatively with each other, as well as the FCC, to identify ways to help customers effectively manage their bills.  And we are committed to continuing this work”

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TOPICS: Consumers, FCC
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Protecting Your Device,
Protecting Your Information

Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on April 10, 2012 at 10:35 am

By Jim Bugel, AT&T Assistant Vice President, Public Safety and Homeland Security

The theft of wireless devices is a complicated issue that we take very seriously, which is why we were pleased to join Chairman Genachowski at the FCC’s event today and to be part of CTIA’s announcement on the wireless industry’s efforts to tackle the many challenges concerning stolen devices.

We have been working with carriers, manufacturers, OS providers, governments and law enforcement for some time now on finding a comprehensive solution that helps the law enforcement community do their job but that wireless carriers are able to quickly implement from a technical standpoint.

Building on today’s industry-wide commitment, AT&T will launch a new website designed to better educate our customers on how to protect their device and personal information, and what to do should their device be stolen.  We think the new website, which will be up and running in the next few weeks, will be a valuable tool for our customers, as well as for consumers in general.

And to ensure that our customers understand the importance of password protecting their device, we’re going to provide helpful reminders to take this critical step when customers purchase their devices, through subsequent e-mails and text messages, and in bill inserts.  And information on apps that help monitor devices, and protect information, will be readily available.

But we won’t stop there.

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