Watch Out For http://yourproductsamples.com/

[Henry]

Hi All,

Not sure how this occurred, but several weeks ago I received an e-mail offering me a free sample of Downy which is a product we use.  Clicked on the link and when I got there had to start filling out a bunch of things such as my address, which seemed ok and phone number which again is not uncommon if you are having things sent to your house.  Then it sent me to another screen for more information which I decided I didn't want to fill out so just hit X and got out of the web site.  Well, we got our phone bill from Verizon yesterday and it was $12 or $13 higher than usual.  It is usually a flat rate since we have the Freedom Package and no toll calls.  Secondly because of that we have them automatically deduct it from our Credit Card.  This extra charge when Maryann called Verizon is for an 800 number that supposedly I had ordered from vtgrandpa.com, which I never did.  Apparently this web site got my phone number and submitted a charge.  If we had been paying the bill by check, we certainly would have noticed it, but because of the automatic payment with the credit card we didn't know about it until Verizon had deducted the extra charge.

Now when Maryann talked with Verizon, they said that a credit would be processed within the next two months  --  She will be making some calls Monday since the place she was going to call was not open until Monday  --  Not sure we will continue the automatic payment to Verizon with our Credit Card as apparently all a company has to do is submit your phone number to Verizon and they add it on to your bill --  Will fill you in more on what transpires after Maryann makes some calls on Monday.

The company that submitted the bill to Verizon for the 800 number was:

http://yourproductsamples.com/

[Henry]

First off,  let me correct myself -- Maryann called ILD Teleservices Inc, not Verizon who was the company that submitted the charge to Verizon.  They were the ones who told her that it would take 2 or 3 months for her to get our credit.  She contacted Verizon today with the intent of stopping our auto pay with our credit card since it appeared that all someone had to do was give our phone number and place a charge against us.  The actual charge for the month was $13.98, but it could have been $1398.00 and even though we disputed the charge would have had to wait two to three months to get it credited.  My wife told the Verizon Customer Service person that she was going to cancel the auto pay at which time the Verizon Customer Service person hung up on her before she could ask how to do that.

Needless to say, my wife called Verizon back and got a different person.  One who was much more sympathetic to the problem.  This customer service person told her that they had such a large customer base that they couldn't possibly call everyone when an extra charge was submitted.  She did say that we could however put a block on our phone not allowing anyone to put extra charges on our phone number.  This we did, so will be able to leave the auto pay and not worry about extra charges from companies like this.

Those of you that send in a check when you get your bill don't need to worry, but if you auto pay the way we do, must be best to have Verizon put a block on your phone number also.

In regards to the Verizon Customer Service person who hung up on my wife -- She has been identified and hopefully counselled

[Henry]

Hi All,

Apparently Maryann & I are not the only ones being scammed on our phone bill -- Apparently the practice is called "Cramming" not scamming.  My daughter from New Hampshire sent me the following article from some newspaper:

'Cramming' left Durham woman stumped for 6 months

By THOMAS R. KRESSLER
Democrat Staff Writer
tkressler@fosters.com

DURHAM — Brenda Nelson was confused each time she received a phone bill from Verizon over the past six months.

On each bill, until the problem was fixed this week, Nelson was charged an additional fee of $16 for services rendered by MyInfoGuard, a Clearwater, Fla., based company said to provide voicemail identity-theft protection.

It's a service that could possibly be useful, but not for Nelson, who says she never signed up for the service and had no idea why she was continually billed for it each month.

"I don't even have voicemail. That was my first clue that something was really wrong," said Nelson, a resident of Cedar Point Road. "With all the little fees and such I didn't pay too much attention to my bill, but suddenly it dawned on me that this is ridiculous."

The actual charge for MyInfoGuard's service on Nelson's LAN-line phone bill was $14.95, with $1.05 in additional fees. On Wednesday, Verizon and Enhanced Services Billing, Inc., the billing service that acted as an intermediary between MyInfoGuard and Verizon, credited Nelson for the erroneous charges.

Nelson was most likely a victim of "cramming" — defined by Erle Pierce, vice president of Government and Community Affairs for Verizon New Hampshire, as "an erroneous charge on your phone bill for a service which you never asked."

Generally, Pierce said, cramming occurs when a customer signs up for something, cashes in a coupon, clicks on a link, or does anything else where information is exchanged and the unintended result is that they are automatically signed up for a service. Often the companies can be legitimate, although their methods of gaining customers are in an ethical "gray area," he said.

Cramming, Pierce said, was once more widespread than it is today, and was the subject of a Federal Trade Commission complaint several years ago. Now customers can call a Verizon business office and request "cramming blocks" on their phone lines, which ensure no services are added to their plan unless they are expressly asked for.

"If a customer runs into something they think is fraudulent they can call our business office and lodge a complaint, which we would love to have," Pierce said.

It is unclear how Nelson came to have the MyInfoGuard service on her phone bill. She said it is possible an Internet link signed her up for the service unknowingly.

ESBI is a company that has already been in trouble with the FTC for phone cramming activities.

In 2001, the FTC reached a settlement with several companies, specifically requiring ESBI to provide notices to consumers that their bills may contain unauthorized charges.

A complaint made by the FTC against ESBI and other "billing aggregators," a copy of which is available on the FTC website, says the company "unfairly attempted to collect — or arranged for local phone companies to collect — payment of charges from consumers for websites and other items they had not ordered and that consumers were unable to prevent ESBI from causing such unauthorized charges to appear on their phone bills."

Nelson said she originally had trouble getting Verizon's help in dealing with the issue, since it was a third-party product. She wrote the state Attorney General's office this week, but officials there when reached for comment Wednesday said they had yet to review the complaint.

Anyone who finds suspicious charges on their Verizon phone bills should call the company's business office, Pierce said, and then contact the third-party service provider to have the service removed. Pierce said Verizon has become good at pinpointing these kinds of problems.

"We're generally pretty receptive and can generally spot it," Pierce said.

According to the state Better Business Bureau, MyInfoGuard has an address in Clearwater, Fla., and a phone number of 727-555-1212, which is the number to call directory information.

Officials at the state Better Business Bureau and the Better Business Bureau Office that oversees the area of Clearwater, Fla., had not heard of MyInfoGuard, nor had they received any complaints

Officials from MyInfoGuard could not be reached for comment.

The MyInfoGuard website requires a pin number to enter and does not list any contact information.