I received my monthly telephone bill from ATT and noticed it was higher than usual. I receive an ebill so I printed out my bill online and reviewed the bill. I saw a 800 number listed below the various ATT number so when I called the number I thought I was calling ATT. I immediately knew I was not talking to ATT because the person who answered the phone did not acknowledge a name or company. I asked who am I speaking to and they abruptly asked why I was calling. I explained that I found a charge on my phone bill that I did not recognize and ask what company am I speaking to. She said something very quickly and had broken english so I asked her to repeat it. She said something that all I could clearly hear was Your diet. I said, I have not authorized any company, yours or anyone to bill my home number and I want this 14.95 taken off my bill. She got flustered and said, well you ordered this and it will be deducted monthly. My voice raised and I said "NO, I did not order this and I am going to report this to a fraud division, what is your name? She quickly said, we will cancel your order and it may take 2-3 months for the bill to fall off and hung up.
I immediately called ATT and spoke to Customer Service and explained the situation. The only remedy she had was to send me a slamming protection from so that no person could charge my account. She also stated she will make sure the charge is removed off my account due to the fact I had called the company and was told it would be removed. I mentioned my concern that the woman stated it could take 2-3 billing cycles for this charge to be removed. I said I do not want to be charge late fees to my account and or show I am in default for this $14.95. ATT assured me that I would not be charged and she gave me my correct amount I owed minue the $14.95.
I received the form from ATT and I filled it out and faxed it on 2/16/09 to the fax number I was provided from ATT.
My new phone bill reflected the charge being removed, however now I want to address the fact that I did not order this, I did not and do not know this company, and I have no idea how they got my phone number. Fortunately I have a low phone bill so I easily spotted the increase that was out of the normal however if I hadn't, it maybe very easy to be billed this amount monthly without noticing it.
This charge constitutes fraud and was done using my home phone number which could mean any number of ways of could be done to hack my phone number either by filling out forms for coupons (which I do) or a free sample of some product, etc etc.
I feel this is worthy of alerting the public to this matter as well as an investigation. $14.95 times many many numbers and a monthly deduction sure could add up to alot more than just my story.
Thank you for your attention to this matter and I will await a response. If you have any questions regarding this report, please feel free to contact me either by email, mail, or home phone as I have provided all information.
Thank you
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