Fraudulent Phone Charges

If you get a call from someone claiming to be your phone company saying you have a free listing in "the book" but can have an "enhanced' listing for a modest charge, HANG UP.

Chances are the call is actually coming from Enhanced Billing Services (or Enhanced Services Billing) in San Antonio, Texas - a company that apparently doesn't care that they are under indictment by the FCC.

In June I received a call from a man claiming to be with my phone company - I adamantly refused the "enhanced" offer he made, but when I received my phone bill yesterday there was an additional charge for $42.35 for the listing I refused.

I called the 888 number on my bill and spoke to the rudest young woman I have ever encountered. It took me the better part of an hour to get her to agree to a refund and cancellation of the charges I didn't authorize in the first place. Given the history and what I found about this company on the internet (they have been posting fraudulent charges for years, so I also filed a report with the FCC and made a post about them on ripoffreport.com), I didn't give much credibility to her confirmation number.

So, I called my phone company directly. The customer service rep I spoke with was wonderful, immediately rescinded the charge, and added a (free) "Block Miscellaneous Charges" service to my account so that any future attempts by Enhanced Billing Services to add charges would be refused

Check your bill carefully - in some cases the charges were small (like $14.99) amounts that you may not notice.

Can any of our telecom people comment on this, and how to avoid being scammed by people like this?  Online, there were several reports of people clicking on an ad for "free services," and ending up with monthly charges on their phone bills.