Scenario: You find charges on your phone bill for optional services such as voice mail, paging, or Internet access.
Scam: You never agreed to buy these services.

	Telephone companies contract to provide billing and collection services for other companies that sell telecommunications-related services. "Cramming" occurs when a vendor asks your telephone company to bill you for voice mail, paging, Internet access, or other optional services that you never agreed to purchase.
	To cram unauthorized charges onto your phone bill, all the crook needs is your business name and phone number. You might unwittingly provide that information, or it can easily be obtained from telephone directories and other lists.
	Be careful when you fill out contest entry forms, product coupons or other promotional offers. Read the fine print to see if you are also agreeing to purchase services.
	If a caller claims to be from your telephone company and asks questions about your service, offers a new service, or notifies you of a service change, don't provide information or agree to anything immediately. Get the person's name and number, and then call your phone company to confirm that the caller and the purpose for the call are legitimate.
	Look at "junk mail" carefully before you dispose of it. It could be a "negative option" notice that you will be signed up for an optional service unless you contact the vendor to refuse it.
	Don't return calls to numbers on your pager or answering machine that you don't recognize. You could be dialing a number that results in signing up for a service without realizing it.
	The person responsible for paying your phone bill should know what services you have and who provides them. Unauthorized charges can be disguised with terms like "monthly service fee" or mistaken for services from your regular providers.
	Check your phone bill carefully. If there are questionable charges, contact the company at the number that appears on that portion of the bill. Also notify the telephone company that sent you the bill. Deduct the disputed charges while they are being investigated and pay the rest of the bill on time.
	Even if the charges are removed, they may pop up again in the future. Check your bills carefully every month.
	Ask your telephone company if there are any "bill blocking" options available to prevent someone from arranging to bill you for services unless you have confirmed directly with the phone company that it's OK.
	Because many telephone companies are making it harder for crammers to abuse their billing services, some crooks are now making unauthorized charges to businesses' credit card accounts instead. Don't give your credit card number to anyone unless you are actually using it to pay for something.
	Report cramming to law enforcement authorities.

If you need advice about a telephone solicitation or you want to report a possible scam, call the NFIC hotline at 1-800-876-7060. You can also ask questions or report fraud using our online forms.

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