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You know or should know that your phone number also is your account number at most telephone companies. But have you ever considered the risks?
If you have a listed number, any phone book will yield your name, your address and your effective billing number. It’s as if your bank had published the numbers of your credit card or bank account.
Your phone bill may show your account number as having extra digits, but in practice those extra digits usually don’t count.
Some unsavory phone-services companies are exploiting this open pipeline to your wallet by posting unauthorized charges on your telephone bill, says Alan Taylor, chief of the Bureau of Service Evaluation for the Florida Public Service Commission in Tallahassee. It’s called “cramming,” and here’s how it’s done:
A company uses your name, address and account number to create a bill for services such as voice mail, paging, a personal 800 number or a calling card. A clearinghouse sends the bill to your local telephone company electronically.
When your phone company gets the charge, it automatically puts the charge on your bill, no questions asked. Because the charge was unauthorized, you can call your local phone company and have it removed. But you have to notice it first.
Thousands of people don’t check their phone bills, so they may pay crammers by accident. “It’s just the Wild West on your phone bill,” Taylor says.
One of the cram-ees was my father, F. Leonard Bryant, 85, who lives in New Jersey. He got a postcard saying, “Welcome to Coral Communications,” which had signed him up for monthly voice mail and a telephone calling card.
He’d never heard of Coral Communications, based in Boca Raton, Fla. When he phoned to tell the company to get lost, a Coral representative mentioned a sweepstakes, which Dad declined to enter.
The next bill from his telephone company, Bell Atlantic, contained a $10.88 “set-up fee” from Coral’s billing company, International Telemedia Associates (ITA). He called Bell Atlantic, which told him not to pay. My dad sore as a boil called Coral. The company directed him to ITA, which canceled the charge.
Then, guess what came in the mail? A copy of the form supposedly authorizing his Coral connection. It was an entry form for the sweepstakes (top prizes, $25,000 or a car). Apparently, when you sign the card to enter the contest, you also sign up for phone services (a fact disclosed only in the fine print). Dad’s signature was forged. The printed address wasn’t in his hand, either. And his zip code was wrong (one piece of information the phone book does not show).
Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan recently sued Coral and ITA, along with seven other alleged crammers and clearinghouses, for assorted consumer frauds. A similar Missouri lawsuit names Coral and four other firms.
Coral’s president, Michael Tinari, says anyone could have forged my father’s signature, and adds, “I’ve never refused to give anyone money back for any confusion.” He said his tactics are “as clean as anyone’s in the industry.”
ITA’s attorney, Richard Gordin of Wiley, Rein & Fielding in Washington, D.C., says that Coral’s material appeared to be proper when ITA requested samples. “We have a disincentive to bill what’s fraudulent,” he says.
David Swan, a Bell Atlantic vice president, sees no problem with using your phone number as your billing number.
Bell Atlantic has standards for pre-qualifying outside billers, he says. Of course, one of those standards is “no sweepstakes” policy so how hard is the company really looking? A Bell Atlantic spokesperson says it’s now taking the problem more seriously.
Both the FCC and Federal Trade Commission have discussed anti-cramming rules but have done nothing so far.
Until that happens, here’s some advice: (1) Check your telephone bill and call your phone company if you see something fishy. (2) Don’t pay for unauthorized charges. (3) Don’t fill out sweepstakes postcards displayed in malls, laundromats and other public places, or accept “free gifts” from telephone salespeople. (4) Report cramming to your state attorney general. (5) Tell your phone company to quit fooling around. You want a billing block option, now.
Stopping the Slammers
Did you know that you could protect yourself against telephone slamming, by freezing your telephone lines? It’s one of the industry’s best-kept secrets, and for a reason. Long-distance companies hate it. Freezes make it harder for them to sell their service.
You’re slammed when your phone service is switched to another company without your permission. Slammers hope that you won’t notice, and pay the slammer unawares.
A handful of small long-distance companies have the highest rate of slamming complaints. But the majors AT & T;, MCI and Sprint may slam you, too. As competition opens for local calls, slamming also is occurring there.
Normally, you can change phone carriers without lifting a finger. A new carrier will solicit you, by phone or mail. If you say yes, that carrier will arrange the switch.
Slammers, however, don’t bother getting your permission, or get your permission under false pretenses.
Businesses are also being slammed, primarily by telemarketers who call low-level employees and ask questions designed to elicit a yes. A shady marketer can even get your name, address and phone number out of the phone book, and switch you without bothering to call.
The new carrier has to verify your order, perhaps by sending you a postcard, saying, “Welcome to your new phone company.” But many consumers don’t notice and throw the card out.
To prevent slamming, call your local phone company. Most of them offer free slamming protection. Once your line is frozen, no changes can be made unless you call your local company and say it’s OK.
The long-distance companies hate to have this publicized. Obviously, when they’re selling services to new customers, they want to be able to make the change automatically.
When you’re slammed, you face the hassle of straightening things out. You also lose any premiums that your authorized carrier would have paid, such as frequent-flier miles.
The FCC tries to minimize slamming, as do some states. But nationally, it’s on the rise.
For this reason, the FCC will tighten its rules probably this spring. Until then, there’s always the freeze.
Syndicated columnist Jane Bryant Quinn can be reached in care of the Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St., Washington D.C. 20071-9200.
