CHICAGO -- SBC Ameritech Illinois today notified MCI WorldCom of its intent to file a complaint with the Illinois Commerce Commission if MCI does not discontinue its deceptive sales and marketing practices, and slamming. Slamming is changing a customer's telecommunications provider without their authorization. The notice comes just four months after MCI and two other long distance companies entered into a $1.5 million settlement with the Illinois Attorney General and other states as a result of charges of deceptive advertising, three months after MCI paid $8.5 million in fines to settle a lawsuit about deceptive marketing practices in California, and only a week after the Texas Public Utility Commission fined MCI $245,000 for slamming and cramming. Cramming is the practice of adding charges to telephone bills for products or services that customers either never ordered or may not have received. SBC Ameritech Illinois has received nearly 1,000 complaints about MCI between November 2001 and May 2002. These complaints charge MCI with switching SBC customers to MCI without their authorization, and other deceptive sales and marketing practices. "Customers have reported that MCI representatives claimed MCI had 'merged' with Ameritech or was assuming Ameritech accounts, apparently as a ploy to get the Ameritech customer to switch to MCI," Hightman said. "MCI has ignored repeated written requests to stop this illegal behavior. MCI can still avoid a formal complaint if it ceases slamming, and stops using misleading sales and marketing practices within 48 hours. If MCI will not discontinue these inappropriate practices, the only way to protect customers' interests will be to file a formal complaint with the ICC." MCI SBC Communications Inc.