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VERIZON BILLS BEING SLAMMED FOR FRAUDULENT UNAUTHORIZED CHARGESBy Rob Cox
We recently had a suspicious increase in our Verizon phone bill. When we investigated further, we found that a company called “Integra Voice Services” at www.IntegraVoice.com was slamming us for an unauthorized charge of $6.95 per month for teleconferencing services. They did this via a process known as LEC billing (Verizon is the LEC, which stands for Local Exchange Carrier). Verizon and the other LECs provide billing services for private companies that offer some kind of telecom service. This is not a bad thing per se; perfectly honest businesses use LEC billing all the time as a convenience to people who do not use credit cards but still want a way to pay on credit. The problem lies with dishonest frauds like Integra Voice Sevices.
So what do you need to do? Examine your recent months bills from Verizon for a charge listed as “Integrated Voice Svc Charges” or something similar for $6.95. If you find this listed, then call Verizon at the customer service number listed, inform them of this fraudulent charge, and request a credit for however many months you may have been billed for.
Apparently, Integra Voice Services has been doing this to many people. If you call their customer service number – 1-800-410-0326 (don’t bother) it appears that it is never answered by a human. I called at 4 pm and their automated attendant placed the call on hold. Their “on hold” message played until I hung up the phone after I woke up the next morning. I also emailed them twice over a week ago regarding the problem, and they have not responded. I can only assume that this is a total fraud. I have not heard from anyone else at this time as to whether this scam is being perpetrated via LEC billing from companies other than Verizon.
What can you do to prevent this from happening to you? You may want to call Verizon customer service and request that Verizon block unauthorized charges like this from being billed in the future. Another somewhat common telecom scam is for a company to make an unauthorized change to your regional and interstate long distance companies. You can avoid that by calling your telephone company and requesting a “PIC Freeze”. If you do decide that you want to change long distance companies to save money on your bill, you can always temporarily remove the freeze.
Rob Cox is the owner of Cox Network & PC Services, a Computer and Telecom consulting company based in Bel Air, Maryland; available on the web at www.CoxPC.com or by phone at 410-515-3309. NOTE: Please call Verizon if you have this problem. Please call us if you want to save money on your phone bill.
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