If you are interested in discussing being a participant in a case against AT&T for billing International calls (Vanuatu and other) without your authorization, Contact: Fred Trapnell fredt@amtgroup.com He is currently in Arizona @ 800-340-1846, feel free to call. Leave your phone number, information about your AT&T billing and what hours you will be available for Mr. Trapnell to reach you. If you have talked to others with the same predicament have them also contact Mr.Trapnell Thank You |
Eve Shaw from Lecanto has a phone line in her home dedicated soley to internet access; It is only supposed to dial a local number to her ISP. "I got my bill and I see a charge on there that is from my computer line, which is a different number that said a charge of $18.12, I thought, 'this is not right,'" Shaw said. When she contacted her phone company, it told her the charge was to an adult entertainment website based in the African country of Chad. At the time the call was placed, Shaw said, she wasn't even online. "If I was online at the time and I was connected to my local ISP, how could I have dialed an African number?"she asked. It's actually quite simple when you surf the web, you may encounter drop-down boxes advertising "free" web sites for music and entertainment or games. The sites don't require a credit card or personal information. All users have to do is click on the boxes and download the material. Many customers do not read the fine print that says the computer is about to be disconnected from your internet provider to dial an international phone number. The national consumers league's internet fraud watch has been tracking these type of web sites. It says the rates charged by the dialer programs vary widely based on time of day and the length of the call. The calls can result in bills in the HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS. "We're starting to see a surge in complaints about these services," said Susan Grant, the director of the Internet Fraud Watch. "Our customer counselors tell us that many victims are parents of teenagers who never knew their kids were downloading these dialer programs." After EIGHT ON YOUR SIDE,(a Tampa Florida TV news station), contacted Shaw's long distance provider, the company credited her account for the charge. But most phone companies, while sympathic to the situation, are insisting consumers pick up the tag. "We have to run a business whereas people are responsible for the calls made from their homes." spokesperson for one long-distance provider said. Here are 3 ways to possibly protect yourself and your computer from dialer programs:
or call 1-800-876-7060. |
Vanuatu, the "Timeless Islands" comprises a group of approx. 80 islands, situated some 2,250 kilometres north-east of sydney, Australia, and 800 kilometres west of Fiji. The total land area is approximately 14,700 square kilometres and the territorial waters cover 450,000 square kilometres
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i got this reply from att today. I sent then another e-mail after i got it pearl ----- Original Message ----- From: Customer Service |
It is our opinion, after some research, that we have been crammed by AT&T. We believe this because NO ONE at AT&T can tell us the business involved with the numbers they say we accessed. All of the billings are for Internet Telephone calls to adult entertainment. To whom and for what, AT&T says,"they cannot tell us that". We have tried locating the numbers our selves to no avail. We have tried getting correspondence to management, (there use to be mailing addresses on the web site, now there are only names--go figure), via the contact us page which gives the option to contact management, but customer service seems to always intervene. They said we could have our hard drive accessed and discover when and where the calls took place. We tried to explain to them that unless we know the business that a reading of the hard drive is futile. All the hard drivel will show us is URL's not telephoned numbers. They do not seem to get it or maybe do not want to. We are still fighting paying the bill. I have sent mail and emails to AT&T and continue to get the same responses. I agree that the Customer Service people must be trained in this as some of the other reports on your sight have indicated. I have attached the emails for you to use in your history files of the AT&T Cramming Scam. As you can see they ring the same bell and any time I make a call or they call us it’s the same. Just like a pre-recorder machine. We continue to get phone calls regarding this 2-3 times daily. A lot of the times when the calls come they are in the form of a recording and we usually just hang up, we also get a lot calls where there is no one on the other end. We suspect that these calls are from AT&T also because one time when the call came, a few hours later AT&T called. We gave our usual answer that they are not to call us and we are in dispute. We also told them that it is against the law for them to call us more than once a day and they said no one answered the phone earlier. That was an outright lie since my wife had been home all day and we have voice mail, but there was no message on it from AT&T. We apologize for the length of this, but as you can see we are totally frustrated. AT&T has wronged us before when we had a calling card with them. It took them 6 months to cancel the card after we told them via several communication modes to cancel it. Someone had the card number and was charging up a storm. They refused then to admit that they were wrong and we went to the Chairman of the board. We never heard anything after that. Now we have to go through this all over again. If you file a class action suit, let us know. tnttobias |
Thank you for contacting AT&T Online Customer Service. I understand your frustration, and apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused you. The AT&T Online Customer Service office handles any type of e-mail inquires including complaints and disputes. As you know we are not in management but do reinforce the previous manager decision that was made on your account. The calls in question were made direct dial from your home via the Internet. Someone in the home using your computer is going to various web sites where International Adult Entertainment advertisements appear. Some free software can be downloaded to your computer which is called an ISP Dialer (Internet Service Provider Dialer) onto the desktop. The dialer download programs required the computer to have a modem and phone line. The cable modems are not vulnerable to this program, unless the computer also has a modem and phone line connection. The software allows customers access to web sites without the use of a credit card. Once the software is downloaded, a pop up window appears with a very long disclaimer specifically stating it will terminate your local access connection to your Internet provider and automatically add the International dial up prefix and connect a call to Vanuatu. It states that long distance apply on your phone bill. There are two push tabs at the end of the disclaimer asking to accept/grant or deny the connections. Most customers will be able to verify these files for themselves by locating the URL (web address) in their history file or temporary Internet file. Upon attempt to exit the window another window immediately pops up with a possibility of 20 windows popping up before a complete exit occurs. Please contact our Customer Service Center at 1-800-222-0300, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for assistance. Due to the proprietary nature of your account, I am unable to provide you any specific information via e-mail. If you need further assistance, please contact us at: http://www.att.com/write For your protection, an original of this e-mail transmission is being maintained in a secure file by AT&T. Sincerely, Annette AT&T Online Customer Service Original Message Follows: ------------------------ When we originally sent this email via the website it was our understanding that it was going to someone on the board or in management, not customer service. We do not want a decision by customer service and will not accept this decision. This matter will be elevated. We have tried to explain our problem and it seems to fall on deaf ears. We KNOW that we did not make these charges, BUT we CANNOT disprove these charges since NO ONE at AT&T will or can tell us to whom these supposed calls were made. We CANNOT research this without information. We do know that there is 'cramming' out there and we feel that we are a victim of this. We already stated that during this same time our credit cards were charged on and the bank has reversed those charges. If the charges on the credit cards had been done by us, they would have come back from the business. This has not occured. |
If you know of any related sites please send me the address / URL so it can be included on this site. Pass this site to all your friends and TELL them to read it and pass it on,so this does NOT happen to them. There is no advertisement, this site is not to make money, but to help all of us and warn us of the dangers of surfing. Maybe YOU or your kid will be the next poor person who is told "you have to pay $5,000 for long distance charges" And you will have to pay up or lose your telephone service So get off your ass and pass this around!! thanks, Iggy |
If you are interested in discussing being a participant in a case against AT&T for billing International calls (Vanuatu and other) without your authorization, Contact: Fred Trapnell fredt@amtgroup.com He is currently in Arizona @ 800-340-1846, feel free to call. Leave your phone number, information about your AT&T billing and times you will be available for Mr. Trapnell to reach you. If you have talked to others with the same predicament have them also contact Mr.Trapnell Thank You |
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