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Slams,
Crams, and Scams
Watch your phone bill closely
Check
your phone bill closely each month for new services or changes to your
service that you didn't order. You would be amazed at what can
be slipped into your phone bill. The practices of Slamming and
Cramming are illegal but still practiced with impunity.
- Slamming
is the switching of your long distance service without
your permission.
- Cramming
is the addition of services to your account without
your permission.
Protecting
yourself
Be
wary of drawings and contests and read the fine print on your contest
entry form. Some contest entry forms have fine print that
says you are authorizing a change in your long distance service, often
with several months of free service. By the time the first bill
comes you will probably have forgotten all about the drawing.
You
may receive a call from a tele-marketer offering an incentive to switch
your long distance service. If you take time to speak with them
they may take something you say as permission to switch your service. If
you give them a hard time or hang up on them they may switch your service
out of spite.
If you receive a check as an inducement to switch your long distance
service read it closely before cashing it. Some of the terms are
rather daunting, with high monthly rates, a minimum number of months
on the contract, etc. In the past those checks offered a good income
if you were willing to play the game but that is no longer the case.
Freezing
your account
You
can avoid trouble by having the phone company place a PIC freeze on
your account, meaning that they will not switch your long distance service
without checking with you first. Just remember to un-freeze the
account when you want to switch your service and to re-freeze it after
you have confirmed that the change has taken effect.
- The
Primary Interexchange Carrier (PIC) is what the telephone company
calls a long distance carrier. A PIC Freeze prevents anyone except
you from authorizing a change to your long distance service.
- The
reputable long distance carriers will have you verify that you are
choosing their service. This is often done by a 3rd party company.
- If
you thought that slamming problems have abated, think again. Our
phone company assures us that the problem has gotten worse.
Scams
and other tricks
Scams
are most effective when there is an element of surprise, something
that catches you off guard. If something seems too good
to be true it probably is. If an odd request seems harmless,
it may not be. Here are just a few tricks you may run into.
You
receive a page or a message to call a number with an area code
you don't recognize, i.e., 809. You may be told to call because
you have won a prize or that a relative has died or is in the
hospital. If you make the call you may find yourself with a
horrendous charge on your phone bill, one that cannot be reversed
by the phone company.
You
will have called an
unregulated pay-per-call number in a foreign country. Most
likely you will be put on hold or transferred repeatedly
so you spend a lot of time waiting. US pay-per-call services,
i.e., 900 numbers, are required to tell
callers the service to be provided and the cost and they must
allow time to disconnect at no cost. Overseas phone companies
are not bound by these rules and US authorities have no jurisdiction
over them.
A
Web site offers free videos and free software to enhance your
viewing experience. It also enhances your phone bill when
it disconnects you from the Internet, mutes the speaker in your
modem, and dials an unregulated overseas number.
The
"free" service may not disconnect the call until the
computer is shut down, thus ensuring a wonderful revenue stream
for the company. Since
these videos are often pornography a good number of people are
reluctant to complain and they just pay the bill.
You receive a call from someone claming to be a telephone company
technician who asks you to dial a special code and hang up so
they can test your line. This code gives them unlimited
access to your company's long distance service.
- The
phone company will only call its customers to test the line
in direct response to a customer's call. They will give
you their name and the work order number you opened and tell
you what problem they are troubleshooting.
There
are many other scams out there. Below are just two, neither
of which are related to telephone service, but they may help
you to understand the gravity of the situation.
- The
"toner phoner" asks questions about your copier
or printer and then sends you a box of supplies, along with
a large bill. They may call several people to extract
the name and title of a purchasing agent and they may use
your name freely when trying to get paid.
- The
blackmailer offers a free gift if you will just try their
products. The company sends you the gift and then some
time later begins shipping merchandise, claiming you have
authorized the shipment. When you complain they threaten
to expose you for accepting a gift valued above what your
company's ethics guidelines permit you to accept
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