Cramming is the illegal placement of unauthorized fees on a consumer's phone bill — either by the phone company or an outside party.
These fraudulent charges are usually buried inside phone bills and generally appear under generic descriptions such as minute use fee, activation, member fee, voice mail or Web hosting. The proposed FCC rules would require landline phone companies to place third-party charges in a separate section of phone bills and to notify consumers whether they offer the option of blocking such charges. Phone companies must provide the agency's contact information.
It also will consider whether to require landline phone companies to automatically block third-party fees from consumer bills altogether.
The agency will consider whether to extend cramming rules that apply to landline companies to wireless carriers and Internet calling services as well.
Cramming is also an emerging problem for wireless customers, the agency said.
Tuesday's vote is part of a broader effort by the FCC to combat mystery fees.
Last year, the agency reached a record settlement with Verizon Wireless over $1.99-a-megabyte data access fees that appeared on the bills of customers who didn't have data plans but accidentally initiated data or Internet sessions by pressing a button on their phones.
