I wanted to share a warning with everyone. I was checking my phone bill online today and got a nasty little surprise. A third party has "crammed" my phone account adding a charge for voicemail. Well I already get FREE voicemail ..answering machine that can be remotely accessed... so it wasn't something we would order.

They do this hoping we won't notice. You can Google "phone cramming" and find lots of info and how to protect yourself. First we had "Slamming"... when the phone companies could change your carrier without telling you. Now Cramming...where third party service providers can add their services to your account and bill you for services you didn't order.

Makes me so angry, how these ( )idiots prey on people in the hopes that we just won't notice they have their hands in our pocket! What makes me even angrier....phone companies are required by law, to allow the third-party to place these charges on the bill without verifying that the account owner ordered the service! However, you can request that they place a "third party billing block" on your account. Some phone companies do this for free... others charge a fee. We placed a "slamming block" on our account when it was opened, but didn't know about the "cramming"....so that is how they slipped in.

ARRRGGGGGHHHHH... durned phone pirates!

Thanks for mentioning it , I've never heard of this before.

years ago Jo they use to do this with long distance service,

Thank you TkTc, for the heads up on this.

What phone carrier do you use, if you don't mind me asking?

Our carrier is AT&T.

I've read several consumer affairs type sites and have found discussions mentioning just about every US carrier. Even cell phones are not exempt from these attempts.

The person who set ours up didn't even have our name.. just the phone number. His name was "Sean".

thanks for the ummmm....foot up, tktc

the scammer will always come up with something new or reinvent the old scam, won't they?

They other day, I got an email from "Faith Gill"....I got a good laugh out of it, it was a spam to sell beauty products...LOLOL I guess her country singing career hadn't been going too well...