Cramming refers to putting unauthorized or nonexistent telecommunication or service charges on your credit card, bank
account or phone bill.
Con artists have found the telephone billing and collection system to be a fertile area to defraud consumers. Taking advantage of changes in the telecommunications
industry that began years ago with the break up of AT&T, these cons arrange to put charges on consumers' phone bills for services that were never ordered,
authorized, received or used.
Sometimes a one-time charge for entertainment services will be crammed onto your phone bill. Other times it may be a recurring monthly charge. Cramming of
recurring charges falls into two general categories: club memberships, such as psychic clubs, personal clubs, or travel clubs; and telecommunications products or
service programs, such as voice mail, paging, and calling cards.
The charges may just appear on your phone bill as a charge for either a regular long distance or a collect telephone call. People who receive these bills have no
way of knowing that the charges are actually for a sex line or psychic line and not long distance or collect calls so they pay without ever realizing.
Taken from Crimes of Persuasion
by Les Henderson - Reprinted with permission
