$19.95 billed to me thru ATT monthly bill
Complaint
Donald F. Pierson
Country: United States
I never saw this billing scam until received a late bill notice from ATT.
I never authorized or even heard of this "SERVICE" for $19.95 I am not going to pay this and I have already notified ATT. This company is operating with the knowledge and now questionable integrity of ATT I am already looking for another land Line phone carrier. If ATT Lets this Malpractice take place I am going to go to another place for service.
I never authorized or even heard of this "SERVICE" for $19.95 I am not going to pay this and I have already notified ATT. This company is operating with the knowledge and now questionable integrity of ATT I am already looking for another land Line phone carrier. If ATT Lets this Malpractice take place I am going to go to another place for service.
Comments
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/2dP0Z9I2_QC35gjLRkIAuQ
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/9QSXfuq-xAAQtgjMG5CjQg
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/s_wiUbxhYwCW7gjMFoKaRQ
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/vzeORY5DpADbiAjJnZ2qZA
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/T1DeNulLtACIZgjLE_HcEA
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/3hY6OfMQ-gD7ZAjKffzMKw
TheBillingResource/Integretel is a "billing aggregator" that submits charges from third party companies to be included on phone company bills. They often show up as the intermediary in fraudulent cramming scams, slipping through unauthorized charges from fraudulent "service" companies.
Both ATT and Verizon are familiar with the problems caused by fraudulent cramming, from this and similar companies, and they have reached settlements with several state Attorneys General regarding such fraudulent charges.
TheBillingResource/Integretel and some of its fraudulent clients were sued by FTC several years back. FTC shut down the clients, but TheBillingResource/Integretel is fighting FTC's demands for refunding of fraud losses to consumers.
Notify ATT that the charges are fraudulent, that you want them reversed due to fraud, and that you want all third party billing blocked. 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.
Then file fraud complaints against ATT, TheBillingResource, and whatever fraudulent company is submitting the charges, with FTC, FCC, and your state Attorney General.
If so, send in your written dispute anyway, since it is essential to establish the date of dispute with ATT, to fit within FCC billing dispute regulations. Otherwise, if the fraudulent biller blows you off, and 60 days has passed, your are screwed, and these scams know that. Your certified receipt will establish that.
Disputing and obtaining refunds directly through the billing aggregator may run into the sort of "problems" common with fraudulent telemarketing schemes.
If you do contact TheBillingResource/Integretel, you may not even be able to get through, effectively putting a barrier in the way of their required dispute process.
If you do get through, they will probably first claim "you authorized the charges", then push "settling" for a partial refund. This is where Integretel steps into the shoes of their fraudulent client, trying to "sell" you on the "settlement" (rather than a full refund due to a fraud dispute) as an "easy solution". That undermines their claim that they are just an "innocent" biller caught in the middle of a "billing dispute".
They know what their clients are up to, those are the clients they chose to serve, and they try to deliver the "services" that those clients need, i.e. taking and keeping your money. They are even required to track dispute rates and cut off clients with too high a rate, which is why they may provide this "service" to divert those troublesome fraud disputes to "billing error settlements", which they claim is just legitimate business.
Even fraudulent companies with no real product require the assistance of more legitimate helpers to actually get the money.
Fraudulent telemarketers trying to fake "recorded authorizations" may just claim they have them, and never produce the, or they might release some truncated, edited, or doctored recording that misrepresents any "agreement". Within this mix of fraudulently "authorized" charges can be added entirely phony claims, mixed in with the ones backed by "recordings". After all, it's like the phone book is a list of credit card numbers.
All the above tactics have been found with both fraudulent credit or checking account charges, as well as phone bill cramming scams.