Check your phone bill for 'cramming'

Worried about identity theft? Look no further than your phone bill. Through a practice known as "cramming," you could unwittingly be making monthly payments on your phone bill to a company you never heard of, which has absolutely nothing to do with your phone service. How is this possible you ask? Read on.

Phone companies now often contract out their billing operations to third parties, called "billing aggregators." AT&T used an aggregator called ESBI (Enhanced Services Billing Inc). Other companies also use ESBI for their billing and have arranged with ESBI to tack their monthly charges onto your phone bill by virtue of your phone number.

In my case, I recently discovered I was paying about $15 per month to a company called Residential Email. However, I never authorized the charges and would never dream of signing up with them. Residential Email's gimmick is for you to "get paid cash for signing up for free stuff".

Once you are "crammed," you will never forget it. Your phone company won't help you, claiming it is the aggregator who is billing you, even though it is only the phone company you had contracted with. You are left utterly amazed that this could happen, simply by someone using your phone number to sign you up.

My advice to you, better check your phone bill.

Mark Evenson

Palatine