“Slamming” is when your long-distance telephone service is switched to another company without your permission. It can happen in many ways. You may receive a check in the mail, or enter a contest, not realizing that the fine print says that by signing the check or the entry form you have agreed to change your phone service. Or you may get a call offering you lower rates and, even if you haven’t agreed, find out later that you’ve been switched. Look at your phone bill carefully. If a different long-distance company is listed, call your local phone company to find out how to get switched back with no fee and how to be re-billed at your original long-distance company’s rates.
Toll fraud occurs when someone charges their long-distance calls to your number. If your calling card is stolen, or your account number is obtained by someone looking over your shoulder at a pay phone, calls to places all over the world can be charged to your calling card. Don’t let people see you dialing your calling card number carefully and report a stolen card right away. In another type of toll fraud scam, you may receive a call from someone pretending to be from a phone company or a government agency claiming to be investigating a phone problem and asking you to accept charges for a call. No legitimate company or agency would ask you to do this. Hang up immediately.
Claims of savings by using “dial-around” access numbers may be phoney. Those seven-digit numbers that you can dial to get around your regular long-distance phone company to save money could result in higher charges, not lower, if there are added fees or calling minimums. Get all of the details and compare both the rates and the terms before you use an access code to place your long-distance calls through another company.
Not all 800 numbers are toll-free. You can be charged for calling an 800 number if you have agreed in advance. But some consumers are tricked into being charged for 800 numbers by following instructions to dial “personal activation codes” that are really access codes linking them to “pay-per-call” numbers, or by other means. You can dispute improper 800 number charges by contacting the billing company.
Some 900 number and other “pay-per-call” services are not worth the price of the call. Advertisements should say how much the call will cost, what information or services will be provided, and if there is a contest involved, how you can enter for free. When you dial a pay-per-call number that will cost more than $2, you must be told the company’s name, the cost of the call, what will be provided, that kids under the age of 18 need their parents’ permission to stay on the line, and that you can hang up when you hear a signal without being charged. Your phone service can’t be shut off if you refuse to pay disputed charges, though bill collectors may hound you. You can put a block on your phone to prevent people from making 900 number calls from your home.
You may be lured into making an international call without realizing it. Some international phone numbers look very similar to
U.S. numbers, but the charges can be far more. An advertisement may not make clear that the phone number listed is international. Or you might receive a message on your pager, your computer or your telephone answering machine that there is a family emergency or that legal action on a debt is about to be taken, with an unfamiliar phone number to call. If you are unsure where a number is, ask your operator before you dial.
