Remember The 'Cramming" Phone Scams? Thanks To Bush's FTC And FCC "Hands-Off Policy," The Scammers Are Back BIG-TIME!
Jesus'sPedoBoy
Commission claim any oversight responsibility!
So they play one off against the other! Another instance of broken
government.
Of course, this problem is another holdover from the BUSH
ADMINISTRATION. Those crooks instructed both the FTC and the FCC to go
easy on phone crammers so as not to ruffle the feathers of the BIG
PHONE FIRMS, which ultimately share in the profits.
As a phone user, they only urge YOU to pay the bills.
Please, no questions, please.
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"Misdials help 'crammers' ring up millions in phone bill scam"
By David Cho
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 1, 2010; A17
ROY and JOHN LIN *** made a devilish fortune in the details of phone
bills, according to a federal investigation.
The San Francisco brothers hired overseas telemarketers to offer
directory assistance and other services to small businesses and
ordinary Americans, according to a major case to be unveiled this week
by the Federal Trade Commission. But their real goal was to sneak
small, unauthorized fees onto thousands of monthly bills and hope the
charges would go unnoticed, court documents state.
The scheme, known as "cramming," proved to be a boon, the documents
show. The Lins' alleged take: $19 million over five years.
The Lins are among a resurgent wave of crammers who may be ensnaring
millions of Americans, federal officials and consumer advocates say. A
decade ago, the scam was so widespread that it became one of the most
profitable business lines of the Gambino crime family.
A wave of federal and state crackdowns pushed the crime into
remission. But as phone bills, both conventional and cellular, have
become more complex, crammers are making a comeback by using
sophisticated marketing techniques and by launching their schemes from
overseas to try to escape the purview of U.S. regulators.
Some firms act with such speed that it can be tough for state and
federal investigators as well as consumer advocates to keep pace.
Earlier this month, Toyota released a toll-free phone number for its
massive car recall. The next day, a Detroit-based wire service printed
the phone number with an incorrect digit. By then, a crammer had
already set up a scam. Consumers who dialed the wrong number were
asked by an unidentified voice to hand over their personal
information, such as their social security number, and for permission
to add a $4.95 charge to their phone bill.
Unless they realized they had misdialed, many of the consumers might
have thought they had reached a Toyota official rather than a crammer,
said Cindy Dudley, director of business services for the Better
Business Bureau in Fresno, Calif., which uncovered the case.
Crammers rely on other firms. Companies called billing aggregators
help them get the charges on bills. And the big phone companies look
the other way, consumer advocates say. Each of these participants
takes a slice of the revenues.
Edmund Mierzwinski, consumer program director for U.S. Public Interest
Research Groups, said the phone companies could stop the practice if
they wanted to. "These fly-by-night companies are out there and the
telephone companies are happy to take their money," he said."that some
third-party charges that appear on phone bills are legitimate.
"When we get complaints about particular providers, we've been
vigilant," said Susan Cavender Butta, a spokeswoman for Verizon. "And
if we've seen an excessive number of complaints, we'll take action to
terminate that contract."
Crammers typically reserve toll-free phone numbers that are very
similar to frequently used customer-service numbers of agencies such
as the Internal Revenue Service or the Social Security Administration.
Customers are made to think they had reached the right number and then
are tricked into accepting a charge on their phone bill. For example,
some crammers will send cellular callers what appears to be an
innocent text message and ask them to reply. The crammers then bring
that reply text to the phone companies as proof that the customer has
agreed to be billed every month.
The Lins often didn't even bother to get the approval of customers,
according to FTC documents.
Using a series of company names including Inc21, GlobalYP and
Gofaxer.com, the Lins purported to sell Web site hosting, Internet
yellow pages listings, search engine advertising and other services to
small businesses and consumers. The telemarketers greeted potential
customers by stating that they sought to "verify and update business
information," without making it clear that they were seeking to add
charges to their phone bills, the documents said. In many cases, Inc21
doctored tapes of the calls to make it seem like the customers had
agreed to be billed.
The FTC persuaded a U.S. district judge in California to force the
Lins as well as Pacific Bell, the telephone company that received
proceeds from the scam, to return the money to nearly 11,000
customers. In his opinion supporting the preliminary injunction, the
judge noted that the action "highlights the vulnerable underbelly of a
widespread and under-regulated practice" of telephone billing.
Added Lois C. Greisman, the FTC's head of the Division of Marketing
Practices: Cramming "causes significant economic injury to consumers.
People need to read their phone bills, whether conventional or mobile
and any bundled bills to look for any unidentified charges."
*** The Lins did not return messages sent to the e-mail address of
their company. The phone number listed on the company's Web site did
not appear to be working.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/28/AR2010022803750.html
Bert Hyman
news:70d06455-869d-4dd8...@g26g2000yqn.googlegroups.com
"Jesus'sPedoBoy" <jism...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Of course, this problem is another holdover from the BUSH
> ADMINISTRATION. Those crooks instructed both the FTC and the FCC to go
> easy on phone crammers
The regulations either exist or they don't, regardless of what anybody
from any administration might have "instructed" any agency.
So, what regulations are being violated, and what agency is actually
responsible for enforcing them?
But wait... In your own post you say
" ... according to a major case to be unveiled this week
by the Federal Trade Commission."
That certainly sounds like the FTC is actually doing something; what's
your problem, exactly?
--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN be...@iphouse.com
God'sLittleAnus
But wait... In your own post you say
" ... according to a major case to be unveiled this week
by the Federal Trade Commission."
That certainly sounds like the FTC is actually doing something;
what's
your problem, exactly?
--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN b...@iphouse.com
========
Hymie,
I believe the poster's inference is that now OBAMA's your president,
the federal organizations that the Bushies hobbled are, after 8 years,
being put to work on programs for which our tax dollars were intended.
Hymie -- are you possibly becoming demented? Hearing "sounds" and
things? Maybe you need a posting time-out.
Bert Hyman
"God'sLittleAnus" <perry...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I believe the poster's inference
But we know that you'll believe anything.
--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN be...@iphouse.com
Justadream
> Innews:85feb3b8-3de6-49c8...@f8g2000yqn.googlegroups.com
>
> "God'sLittleAnus" <perryneh...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > I believe the poster's inference
>
> But we know that you'll believe anything.
>
> --
-------------------
Hymie:
How did your parents manage to miss the last train to Auschwitz?