Cramming: Critical Things to Be Aware Of

Are you a victim of cramming? This is not the same type of cramming associated with college students pulling all nighters, by studying for exams, coupled with lots of strong, caffeinated coffee. We are familiar with spamming, phishing, hacking and electronic pick-pocketing. Unfortunately, however, cramming is one of the latest growing practices of consumer fraud befalling so many unsuspecting people.

Cramming occurs when someone places unauthorized, deceptive and misleading charges on your telephone bill. If your local or long distance telephone company intentionally or unintentionally places unauthorized charges on your bill, more than likely you could be the victim of cramming. According to the FCC, one out of twenty victims of cramming may be aware of these unauthorized charges.

Crammers trick consumers into paying for services that they neither received nor authorized which could cost more than the end-user was led to believe. Therefore, here are some cramming red flags that you should be aware of.

1. If a local or long distance company, as well as some other type of service provider do not describe all relevant charges clearly and accurately when marketing a service to you, investigate those charges.

2. Even if you authorize a service and did not understand or were misled about how much this service cost, you were crammed.

3. Cramming can appear in many forms and is often hard to detect on your telephone bill. If charges are added to your telephone bill every month without a clear explanation of the services this could indicate cramming.

4. Although cramming charges will typically appear on your local and long distance telephone statements, they could also appear in bills from other related services like wireless telephone providers, pagers and beeper services.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has a set of Truth-in-Billing regulations that require telephone companies to provide the description of services that you are billed for in clear and non-misleading language. The company sending you the telephone bill must identify the service provider who is associated with these charges. Telephone companies are required to display one or more toll-free numbers to call and inquire about a charge or dispute one.

Be sure to review your landline or wireless telephone bill carefully each month. Protect yourself by taking the time to question anything that looks remotely suspicious. Crammers try to stay under the radar by only charging $2.00 or $3.00 that could go unnoticed on your bill. Be sure to keep a record of telephone services, such as 900 numbers or any other type of telephone support that you authorized and use. Carefully read all promotional materials and forms before making a commitment to sign up for telephone or any other related services that will be billed to your phone. Just as you go through your credit card statements, empower yourself with information to protect you from becoming a victim of cramming or any type of communications fraud for that matter.