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Cramming: What it is and what you can do about it.


In the last few years, smartphones and tablets have become the norm for cellular and wireless communication. Since these devices are essentially portable computers, bill payment, money transfers and online purchases have and will continue to become more and more common. Unfortunately, it follows that crooked schemes will become more common as well. Even placing a classified advertisement will almost invariably attract someone trying to cheat you out of your money.
So, what is cramming? Simply put, cramming is placing fraudulent charges on your phone bills, but, with legitimate charges appearing there too. Your phone bill might look more like a credit card statement than a phone bill. You need to take steps to keep from getting ripped off with phony charges. It’s important to review your bills every month for these kinds of scams.
Some will be obvious and easily disputed, but you may see other, non-specific charges such membership fee, service charge or fee or other charges that somewhat specific but vague such as charges for “international” calls, horoscopes or ringtones, premium texting, celebrity gossip etc. that are suspicious or unknown to you.
What can you do about it?
First, you should know exactly what you are paying for every month. Find the legitimate charges on your bill and make a written list of recurring charges and how much they are – Xbox, gaming memberships and any charge that you know will be on there every month. Now you have a benchmark to compare against. Most cramming charges are small, 2 or 3 dollars a month, but if you don’t catch them, you might pay them for years. You should investigate any charge you are unsure about and ask for an explanation from your telecom service provider, and if it is a bogus charge have the provider remove it from the bill. You might also need to contact the company that assessed the charge to have it removed. Or, if you pay your bill with a credit card, there may be some recourse there. Be sure to note the full name, date and time of everyone you talk to as will be important if you have to open a case with your state public utilities commission or the FCC if it is a telephone service issue or the Federal Trade Commission if it is not a telecom service related charge if you are unable to resolve the issue.

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