I received in the mail a bill from a company calling itself Telecom USA - A Verizon Company from Jacksonville, Florida.
The bill says: "The following calls were completed using Telecom USA's network. The charges for these calls will not be on any other telephone company bill. Please pay upon receipt to Telecom USA. Thank you."
The charges were supposedly for calls made a month ago from one number I've never heard of, to a second number I've never heard of, and to be billed to a phone number I don't own, yet somehow, the bill came to me.
I do NOT have a Verizon phone account at all. I did have a Verizon phone number about 7 or 8 years ago, but that account is LONG closed and I have been with T Mobile ever since. Also, the address for that OLD Verizon account is NOT my current address - I moved several towns away about 3 years ago, and I have no idea how they even tracked me down to stick me with this bogus bill, but it is worrisome.
I called the 800 number on the bill and the woman I spoke with, named Lisa, told me she would remove the account. I explained to her that I felt this was a scam, and that I would be reporting this incident to the FTC and if I ever heard from them ever again, I would pursue legal action. She said "Okay then."
I have no idea how this happened, where it will lead, or what will happen now, but I am hoping this is the end of it. I did fill out the FTC complaint form online. I am concerned that this is the start of something bad, and I am outraged that faceless companies can simply sit back and fire bogus bills at people like this.
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