# Best forum for billing fraud questions **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 6, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-forum-for-billing-fraud-questions/505530 "2009-08-06T14:43:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-forum-for-billing-fraud-questions/505530/1 "2009-08-06T14:43:32Z")
Someone using a \*\*Charter \*\*ISP is creating a \*\*ymail \*\*account and via **several third party billing** companies are putting bogus charges on my **AT&T** phone phone bill. Governemt regulators are kept up to date. AT&T is cooperative but claim they cannot stop third parties from putting stuff on my bill. Please suggest forums to discuss specifics of how to stop this. ---
**Author:** ![ethelbert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/958977/32.png) [@ethelbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ethelbert)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-forum-for-billing-fraud-questions/505530/2 "2009-08-06T16:56:51Z")
I can’t recommend any other forums, but whoever you spoke with at AT&T is mistaken. They can, and will, turn off third party billing. I had this done with my provider, Verizon. Ask to speak to a supervisor. Make it clear that the current charges are the result of fraud. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-forum-for-billing-fraud-questions/505530/3 "2009-08-07T22:46:26Z")
Our state cut off all funding to the consumer fraud division of the attorney generals office so we cannot even talk to someone who will venture advice or give assistance. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-forum-for-billing-fraud-questions/505530/4 "2009-08-11T19:21:21Z")
The Public Utility Commission of Nevada just referred me to the consumer fraud division of the attorney generals office which is closed because its funds have been cut off. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-forum-for-billing-fraud-questions/505530/5 "2009-08-11T22:07:12Z")
> [@janeslogin](#): > > The Public Utility Commission of Nevada just referred me to the consumer fraud division of the attorney generals office which is closed because its funds have been cut off. It’s time to send your governor a complaint about both problems. Call the phone company again and talk to somebody else. Unless things have changed they’re full of crap. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-forum-for-billing-fraud-questions/505530/6 "2009-08-12T15:23:28Z")
Cancel your AT&T service- or at least ask to be transferred to that department. They’ll fix your problem really quickly then. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-forum-for-billing-fraud-questions/505530/7 "2009-08-12T18:23:48Z")
[http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/Telemarketing/Inbound/MinorIn/cramming.htm](http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/Telemarketing/Inbound/MinorIn/cramming.htm) and others say cramming has been a serious problem since 1997 and that AT&T cannot by law do anything to prevent it. They can only help correct the billing. Other articles report cases where changing the phone number did not help. All of the cases discussed in the articles sited above relate to companies that are the result of the break up into the “baby bells”. It still is not clear to me if there are other sorts of companies that operate under different sets of laws. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-forum-for-billing-fraud-questions/505530/8 "2009-08-14T18:15:33Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > … It’s time to send your governor … Nevada’s Governor is one of those being drug out publicly for ethical, moral and legal accusations. He cannot even handle his own problems. Besides, it is apparently an FCC failure. Do you know of any other phone services not under the FCC rules to handle third party billing? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-forum-for-billing-fraud-questions/505530/9 "2009-08-14T18:35:10Z")
You’re confusing a few things, the charges appear on your AT&T bill but they are not being put there by AT&T. Close the account and reopen a new one. It’s like when I had my wallet lifted, for three months I had charges on my Citibank card. Everytime one appeared I had to dispute it, file a copy of the police report and have a notorized statement sent to Citibank that the charge was a result of that theft. Finally I got fed up and just told Citibank to close my account. Before all the did was change the CC number, which does nothing, because any vendor can just have it route to your new number and hope you’ll pay it. So I cut the card up and said “Close this account and ALL associated accounts and report it to all credit agencies as an account closed.” That solved the problem. AT&T is just the medium which the charge is being transmitted, like a credit card is the medium which a merchant charges you through. You need to close that account in full, not just change the number or such, and leave it closed so these charges have no way of being put through. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-forum-for-billing-fraud-questions/505530/10 "2009-08-14T18:56:47Z")
Would this help you? I think everybody should use this service. [Preventing Slamming of Your Account](http://www22.verizon.com/ResidentialHelp/Phone/Billing/Privacy+And+Security/Unauthorized+Change+of+Telephone+Service+Carrier+Slamming/96026.htm) It’s stopped people from changing my account a couple times. Are the the frauds coming as a phone service provider charge, or as a toll line billing? Perhaps your problem is Cramming in which case you want to have [Billing Block](http://www22.verizon.com/ResidentialHelp/Phone/My%20Verizon/Customer%20Rights%20and%20Safety/customer/95446.htm). My links are to Verizon pages, but you can see this is stoppable. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-forum-for-billing-fraud-questions/505530/11 "2009-08-14T19:01:10Z")
The key is to tell them you want to have 3rd party billing block on your account. Don’t ask what they can do. Insist because you might have a representative that doesn’t want to go to the effort. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-forum-for-billing-fraud-questions/505530/12 "2009-08-19T20:30:30Z")
I find [groups.google.com](http://groups.google.com) difficult to use but it does appear to me scanning there that there is a new wave of cramming. The boilerplate remedies are not working? It still isn’t clear to me if Verizon operates under different laws or regulations. Is/was Verizon ever a baby bell? ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-forum-for-billing-fraud-questions/505530/13 "2009-08-19T21:54:02Z")
If you can’t get AT&T to do something and your Attorney General isn’t taking complaints you’re between a rock and a hard place. I see the worst carrier for not helping the consumers is AT&T. I see that Nevada requires less from AT&T then many other states. [THIRD-PARTY BILLING and CUSTOMER-INITIATED BILL BLOCK](http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:yLVll-IjxqoJ:www.thefocus.org/interest_groups/Bill_Block_FOCUS_Comm_FINALREV_12.04.07.doc+at%26t+billing+block&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&lr=lang_en&client=firefox-a) Third party billing blocking is not a national regulation or law. Some states have required carriers to provide it, and in other cases the carriers provide it because of consumers requesting it. The only other thing to try is switching to a carrier that will block 3rd party billing. I can’t help you any farther so good luck you’ll need it in Nevada right now.