Cramming your phone bill
Phone bill cramming is a deceptive practice used by phone companies
or sometimes by other non telecom service providers to overcharge you
for services you never authorized or for services you were misled into
authorizing. Note that telephone companies MAY include charges from
other companies on your phone bill. For example, when calling a 900
pay per call number you will be charged a fee that will be included
on your phone bill, even though the fee is not charged by your phone
company.
The most known cramming techniques are:
- Charges from your phone company for services you did not authorize
or order
Often times phone companies charge you for extra services such as
voicemail, etc without your ordering these services. They do this
because they know most people do not closely examine their phone bills,
therefore such charges can go undetected for a long time.
- Charges from other companies, usually entertainment services, psychics,
etc
For example, you call a 900 number to receive a particular service
such as a psychic reading; you're aware of the fee paid for listening
to what they tell you, however you don't know that your phone number
might be identified and associated with some other service charged
monthly on your phone bill. Such companies usually use deceptive techniques
to make you agree to paying without being aware of it. Our advise:
always treat pay per call companies with caution.
What you should know:
- Extra charges on your phone bill MUST be clearly and suggestively
identified
- Not paying fees charged by other than your telephone company generally
DO NOT result in service interruption; therefore, if you see unauthorized
charges from other companies you can refuse to pay them without worrying
about not being able to use your phone service
- Phone bills must provide some contact info (toll free number) for
you to question charges
What to do/not to do:
- Carefully study your phone bill; for a list of legitimate charges
found on all telephone bills visit this
page
- Avoid calling 900 or other pay per call numbers, especially when
you're asked to call for collecting a prize or other "too good
to be true" deal
- If you're not sure about a particular charge ask the company charging
you for explanations before paying your bill
- Do not pay if you know for sure you did not authorize a service
Other resources on cramming:
 File
a complaint with the FCC
Back to the Phone
scams page |
