by Staff Report CTNewsJunkie
HARTFORD, CT – Attorney General William Tong has launched an investigation into AT&T over what he calls unauthorized charges added to customer accounts.
The civil investigation follows criminal charges filed against a former AT&T employee in Stafford, where the employee allegedly added unauthorized lines to customer accounts in a ploy to earn bonuses and commissions, Tong said.
“In multiple instances, AT&T employees are alleged to have opened fraudulent lines and added unauthorized charges to win bonuses,” Tong said in a news release. “We need to understand whether these were isolated bad actors, or whether there is something about AT&T’s practices that is incentivizing or enabling more widespread fraud.”
A Connecticut State Police investigation found that between 2021 and 2022, Katie Barnaby of Stafford added or removed insurance plans at least 30 times, costing customers over $1,000 in unauthorized charges. In other instances, she added unauthorized phone and tablet lines to customer accounts, including one instance that cost a victim approximately $2,000. She is facing several criminal charges and her cases are pending in Rockville court.
Tong sent a civil investigative demand letter to AT&T seeking information on the company’s footprint in Connecticut, all complaints from Connecticut consumers regarding unauthorized charges, as well as its procedures to prevent unauthorized charges and services, what steps the company takes when an unauthorized charge is reported and details regarding the company’s sales compensation plan policies.
Tong is asking anyone with information that may be relevant to this investigation to contact his office or file a complaint directly online.
“If you are a customer, please double check your accounts, and report any unauthorized charges,” Tong said in the release.
Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner Ronnell A. Higgins said he looks forward to further cooperation between his staff and the attorney general’s office.
“This is precisely the sort of inter-agency cooperation that benefits Connecticut residents,” he said in the news release.
An AT&T spokesperson said they cannot comment on Tong’s investigation, but shared a statement the company issued at the time of Barnaby’s arrest.
“We take seriously our responsibility to protect customer accounts, and we do not tolerate this type of behavior,” AT&T said. “Ms. Barnaby no longer works for AT&T or its authorized retailers.”
The company referred any further questions to police because of the active law enforcement investigation.