Do You Check Your Telephone Bill Each Month?

[tennisWalt]

Perhaps you should if you don't.

AT&T is allowing ESBI to use At&T to collect payments for scam charges from United Tel, LLC 247mp3s.com and other companies.

United Tel, LLC 247 mp3s.com charged $15.71 to my At&t bill. This is what AT&t said about this charge.

At&T said they don't make money off of this charge. RIGHT!

This portion of your AT&T bill is provided as a service
to the above company. Please review all charges
carefully - they may include those of a service
provider not shown on a previous bill. Unpaid accounts
may be subject to collection action. Other services may also be
restricted if not paid. If you have questions about any
of the charges appearing on this page, please call the
number shown above.

This what others that have said about this charge.

ESBI Phony Charges. $14.95 plus tax charged on my AT & T bill. Why?

ESBI a/k/a Enhanced Services Billing, Inc. | BSG Billing Services Group | Telephone Bill Complaints | Unauthorized Residential Phone Charges? | Consumer Complaints

Answerstop Voicemail Monthly Fee - voicemail you didnt sign up for! Pintmaster

In my case United Tel said my wife signed up for unlimited MP3, Movies, and Game downloads from 247 MP3S.com. But my wife doesn't use the internet or any computer. So how could she sign up for this service? AT&T doesn't require anything but a claim from United Tel/ESBI (Enhanced Services Billing, Inc.) for adding this charge to your bill.

24/7 Mp3s | Member Login

24/7 MP3s Signup Form

All that is needed is for anyone from anyplace to get your land line telephone number and and the name on your telephone bill account (not very hard to do) and signed up on 247 mp3s.com sign up page. The 247 MP3 sign up page does not required a Credit Card for signing up.

At&T is acting like a credit card company. They are collect money for a 3rd party for charges that are not related to your telephone use.

UnitedTEL | The Telephone Billing Experts

United Tel, The Telephone Billing Experts.

Telephone (LEC) Billing

Charging product or service fees to a telephone bill has come a long way since the days of 1-900 numbers. UnitedTEL has been there every step of the way. UnitedTel has the tools to define the cutting edge of telephone billing.


So why is AT&T (Verizon and Qwest too) doing business with ESBI? And why is the FTC allowing this scam to continue?

In 2001, the FTC reported this.

Companies that illegally "crammed" unauthorized charges for a variety of services onto consumers' telephone bills and claimed that consumers had to pay the charges, even though they neither purchased the services nor authorized the charges, have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that their unfair and deceptive practices violated the FTC Act and the FTC's 900-Number Rule. The proposed settlements would:

bar the defendants from illegally billing consumers in the future;
require one defendant, New Century Equity Holdings Corp., Inc. to give up $350,000 in ill-gotten gains; and

require the other defendants, Enhanced Services Billing, Inc. (ESBI), and Billing Concepts, Inc. (BCI), to provide notices to consumers that their bills may contain unauthorized charges for website design and other enhanced services, to inform consumers how to obtain a refund, and to provide refunds.

Telephone "Crammers" Settle FTC Charges: Billing Aggregators Debited Phone Bills for Charges Consumers Didn't Authorize

FTC v. Enhanced Services Billing, Inc., and Billing Concepts, Inc. et al.

Walt

[Fern]

:::Sigh::: Been there, done that, twice. They (ESBI) are really scum. I saw the charges on my phone bill, called them (ESBI), got transferred around, and found somebody who would cancel it, then back charge two months, since the next month had already been processed, too.

Sounds good, right? Yeah, but it came back after the two months. Its like a bad dream that keeps happening. You call and tell them you called and removed and cancelled before, and you will have them revert to script. They again processed a refund and cancel, they say. I then called my phone company and blocked all third party billing.

You gotta be vigilant.

Fern

[1950bing]

Sure I always check ALL my bills. People and computers do make mistakes. I second guess most people till they earn my trust.

[tonyg]

Originally Posted by 1950bing

... I second guess most people till they earn my trust.

You should have started that before you bought that timeshare !

[1950bing]

You sure are right on that one! I was young and stupid. I thought everyone was honest and would not lie just to make a sale.

[JLB]

Yeah, I check all our bills.

Last month I complained about our $36 wireless internet monthly charge, since new customers who bundle are getting it for $14.95.

They upgraded us to a higher speed for $9.95.

[tennisWalt]

I just found out I was Crammed on my office phone bill too. This time by OAN. Is this the same company listed in this FTC news release? Why wouldn't the Federal Law Makers do anything about it?

Walt

Nation’s Largest Telephone Bill Aggregators Will Pay $1.9 Million and Stop ‘Cramming’ to Settle FTC Charges

Nation’s Largest Telephone Bill Aggregators Will Pay $1.9 Million and Stop ‘Cramming’ to Settle FTC Charges

The FTC charged BSG Clearing Solutions North America, LLC, ACI Billing Services, Inc. d/b/a OAN, and Billing Concepts, Inc. (collectively, “BSG”) with placing charges on behalf of co-defendant Nationwide Connections, Inc. (see press releases dated March 15, 2006 and September 26, 2006). The three related companies control more than 85 percent of the billing aggregation market, in which aggregators contract with local telephone companies to bill on behalf of third parties. According to the FTC, BSG began receiving complaints from consumers soon after the Nationwide billing began, including complaints about charges for calls made to telephone lines dedicated to computers and fax machines, and to phones where no one was present.


Cramming: Mystery Phone Charges

[GrayFal]

Originally Posted by Fern

:::Sigh::: Been there, done that, twice. They (ESBI) are really scum. I saw the charges on my phone bill, called them (ESBI), got transferred around, and found somebody who would cancel it, then back charge two months, since the next month had already been processed, too.

Sounds good, right? Yeah, but it came back after the two months. Its like a bad dream that keeps happening. You call and tell them you called and removed and cancelled before, and you will have them revert to script. They again processed a refund and cancel, they say. I then called my phone company and blocked all third party billing.

You gotta be vigilant.

Fern

This sounds like very good advice once u get the charges removed.

[Spence]

This month AT&T charged me for my $30 flat rate text plan three times on my family plan. Once under my #, once under wife's #, and once under son's #; hey why not my daughter's or my parent's??