On my March Verizon bill, I discovered 3 fraudulent charges from third-party "outside providers": OAN, ILD Teleservices Inc., and ESBI Enhanced Servies Billing. All three billed for the identical amount of $14.95. Each claims to be a "billing clearinghouse" for other providers with whom I or my husband supposedly registered for various phone services, i.E. OAN bills for "Access Voicemail, " and ILD Teleservices bills for "cybertube. Tv." No-one in our household ever requested these services. I called each of the three providers and got virtually the identical response: "Gee, M'ame, all we can say is that your husband must have signed up for this service online, but we're happy to cancel and issue a refund. You may see another charge on your April statement, but don't worry, we'll refund that, too, within 1-3 billing cycles." [We'll see if the refund ever shows up...]. None of the three (and I spoke to supervisors) seemed to be the least bit concerned that when I Googled their companies, I discovered that literally hundreds of other Verizon customers had been posting the very same complaint online — FOR YEARS. I then called Verizon who offered to block all outside providers from my personal account but said they were required by the FCC to allow outside providers to bill their services through Verizon. This dates back to when the FCC deregulated telecommunications and forced larger companies to bill for smaller companies in an attempt to level the plaing field and prevent monopolies.instead, it opened the door to widespread fraud by these third-party providers. Typically, I pay the phone bill without looking at the details unless it is way out of line with my usual monthly bill — this bill was only about $45 more than usual, and I would have just paid it except the words "outside providers" happened to catch my eye and I got curious. How many oblivious customers have been similarly scammed and don't know it?
Unfortuntely, companies like Verizon are powerless to stop these crooks unless individual customers call to have their accounts blocked. I would advise everyone out there to do this but scrutinize your phone bill anyway for such fraudulent charges.
I have filed complaints with the FCC, the BBB, our state Attorney General, and local news outlets and recommend other victims do the same.
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