Fake phone bills again

By Joel Thurtell

Early this year, I discovered that my ATT bill contained fees for services I’d never heard of, never ordered, yet was paying for. I had to make a slew of phone calls, but managed to have the fees removed from my bill. I wrote about the scam in a column that prompted others to write about similar misadventures with their ATT bills.

One of the companies that billed me — ILD Teleservices — has responded. Here is the comment, followed by my response:

Hello Joel,

ILD Teleservices is not a fraudulent practice – here’s what we do.
ILD Teleservices is a convenient and secure payment method designed for purchasing on the web or over the phone. Like a credit account, ILD provides the flexibility to buy without using your credit card. Hundreds of businesses offer Bill to Phone payment from ILD, giving you a way to pay by charging your phone bill. Plus, ILD also provides you with “purchase assurance” protection; like the protection provided by your bank and credit card companies. This means you are not responsible for unauthorized charges. So, if you feel like you have been wrongly billed, please call ILD at (800) 953-7765 and we’ll help you or you can get support by visiting our self help center at http://www.ildteleservices.com/support.html.

Like any bill, it’s important to closely review your phone bill each and every month because whether it’s your phone bill, credit card statement, electric or cable, sometimes charges end up on your bill that you should question. Your phone bill should be treated like any other purchase you make, so take a few minutes each month and closely review all of the charges, just like you do with your bank statement and credit card statements.

You can read our blog for helpful hints on how to protect yourself from fraudulent charges as well as learn more about our services.
http://www.ildteleservicesblog.com

Thank you,
Monica Melgar

Dear Monica — You can read my blog (http://joelontheroad.com/?p=3794) for a description of how persons unknown used a false birthdate and fake e-mail address to add several fee-based services to my ATT bill without my permission. Your company was one of them. This was enough for ATT to start billing me at the rate of $12.95 per month, a useless (to me) fee that went to your company. Now, maybe your company didn’t falsely sign me up for this unwanted service. But whoever did it, the act benefited your company and it hurt me. It seems like you might want to look into this fraudulent activity and try to make sure it isn’t repeated, rather than post flimsy defenses on the blog that exposed the larceny.

Joel Thurtell

Since writing that, I spent Saturday evening with family. Out of the blue, my wife’s brother-in-law started complaining about — Guess what! He’d discovered, belatedly, a charge from an unknown company for an unwanted service attached at the end of his ATT bill. He didn’t know how it got there. He called ATT and heard the same story I got: ATT is powerless to stop these third-party billers.

The scam goes on.