charged my account for ild teleservices i didnt approve this
Complaint
sherry gould
Country: United States
i live on a small disability check and can barly pay the bill now with out them charging me for other services i didnt approve on my at&t account
Comments
Submitting fraudulent charges onto phone bills via a billing aggregator is a fraudulent practice known as "cramming".
"Cramming" has resulted in substantial fraud losses to government, business, and consumers, as fraudulent businesses have found this an easy way to slip small charges onto phone bills that often go unnoticed. AT&T itself has been defrauded by scam businesses that crammed fraudulent charges onto the billing for their own business numbers, passing it through their own billing system to steal their money.
Although companies submitting charges via this mechanism are supposed to obtain verifiable approval before doing so, that verification is not checked unless the charges are disputed, if then, and with little penalty to just lying, crammers have turned the phone book into virtually a list of "bank accounts" that they can charge just on their say-so. Some of these fraudulent companies have had organized crime connections.
The "services" might be supposedly "voicemail" or similar services, which are totally useless when the victim doesn't even know they are paying for this "account". Some may cold call the victim to try to deceptively create a recording they can claim is this "authorization", others may use deceptive websites to capture names and phone numbers so they can claim they "don't know" the charges weren't agreed to by the phone owner, others may be selling "phone sex", or other shady "services" that then put charges on city phone bills, etc....
Consumer reports on AT&T's own handling of this cramming problem have varied, from connecting consumers with their anti-fraud center which promptly reverses the charge and blocks further cramming, to telling them there's nothing they can do and you have to call the billing aggregator, who in turn may try to "sell" you into paying part or all of the fraudulent charge, since they get a cut. That also evades written notice to AT&T itself, undermining the consumer's dispute rights. Both AT&T and other telecoms like Verizon have reached settlements with state AGs over handling of crammed charges.
Supposedly, AT&T and Verizon were phasing out accepting charges from billing aggregators, but clearly that channel for fraud is still in operation...
Notify ATT that the charges are fraudulent, that you want them reversed due to fraud, and that you want all third party billing blocked. Call them, but also do this in a letter sent to ATT's dispute address from your statements, mailed certified, to establish the date you have notified them, as FCC billing regulations place limits on the period that telecom companies have to consider billing disputes, and if you miss this 60 day dispute window following the statement date, you may find yourself out of luck.
Then file fraud complaints against ILD, and whatever fraudulent company is submitting the charges, with FTC, FCC, and your state Attorney General.
If AT&T gives you a hard time, trying to evade accepting your fraud dispute, file a fraud complaint against them as well, including with your complaint a copy of your written dispute to AT&T along with a copy of your certified receipt. They know the game, so they have an obligation to protect their customers from it.
http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/03/28/1 ... ing-phone-bills
"...
After investigation, AT&T, Verizon agree to stop 'cramming' phone bills
By Bob Sullivan, Columnist, NBC News
Verizon and AT&T have agreed to stop “cramming” consumers' telephone bills with unauthorized third-party charges, Sen. Jay Rockefeller announced Wednesday. The move comes after a Senate investigation revealed last year that consumers were hit with $10 billion in fraudulent charges due to the practice over the past five years.
A TODAY show/msnbc.com investigation in July revealed how extensive and frustrating cramming is, with maddening, mysterious $10 or $20 charges appearing every month on millions of Americans' phone bills.
The investigation relied on a report commissioned by Rockefeller that found that three telecom firms - -- Verizon, AT&T and CenturyLink/Quest -- earned $650 million as their cut of cramming charges levied by third-parties since 2006.
"AT&T made the right decision to end cramming by August," the West Virginia Democrat’s office said in a statement on Wednesday. "Something had to be done. And while the decisions of AT&T and Verizon are a step in the right direction, I still believe we need to pass a bill that bans this abusive practice once and for all.”
“AT&T has decided to discontinue most third-party billing on our customers’ landline accounts,” Michael Balmoris, an AT&T spokesman, said in a statement to msnbc.com. "We currently receive cramming complaints for only about one out of every thousand bills that contain third-party charges. However, due to continued concern over the possibility of unauthorized charges, we have decided to take this additional step and eliminate third-party billing for most types of services.”
Verizon spokesman Bill Kula also confirmed the change, saying in an email: “On March 19, Verizon’s wireline business began notifying its billing aggregators (or “clearinghouses”) and carriers that it is going to cease providing third-party billing services for so-called 'miscellaneous' or 'enhanced' services. All billing of those services will be phased out by the end of 2012. … Verizon wireline will continue to provide billing services for third party charges that generally relate to telecommunications or information services that use our network.”
Separately, Verizon earlier this month agreed to settle aclass-action lawsuit related to cramming, and agreed to refund 100 percent of victims' money for any unauthorized third-party charges consumers suffered from April 27, 2005, through Feb. 28, 2012.
..."
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/02/800connect.shtm