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Watch Your Phone Bill Carefully

By Robert J. Ambrogi

When I received my most recent Verizon phone bill, I was surprised to see a charge of $14.95 to <a href="http://www.ildteleservices.com/">ILD Teleservices Inc.</a> I had no idea what the company was or what the charge was for. I looked back over my recent bills. I am embarrassed to report that the charge had been appearing on my bills for several months. A quick search of the Web showed me that I am not alone. (See, for example, <a href="http://i.nconspicuo.us/2007/02/09/ild-teleservices-scam-rip-off-ildtelecomcom/">here</a> and <a href="http://thefastertimes.com/consumerrights/2009/07/19/on-hold-the-minor-overbill-dilemma/">here</a>.)<br /><br />There is a happy ending to this story. When I called ILD, the customer service rep immediately agreed to credit all the charges I had paid. But I am troubled by how this got on my bill in the first place. When I asked about that, I was told that someone I never heard of gave my phone number as the billing number when signing up for a service that provides dial-up Internet access. That suggests that anyone out there can just pick up anyone else's phone number and use it for billing.<br /><br />Can this be true? Are there no stronger protections built into our phone accounts? I am glad that ILD agreed to credit my account, but I would hope it and Verizon would take steps to prevent this kind of thing from happening to others.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3958829-3073596389648770416?l=www.legaline.com%2Flawsites.html'/></div>

Full post as published by Lawsites on September 01, 2009 (boomark / email).