phone bill problems faq900.com please help!

Just recently I had a phone bill for faq900.com the charge is for 2 minutes of airtime and the cost is $40. I have no idea what it is or why I am being charged. Is there anyone with information on this possible scam and the means by which I can get this removed from my bill. Any help would be most appreciated as I really don�t want this to appear on my bill every month.

www.ripoffreport.com...

You've been had :@

Its a scam.

I had the same problem 3 years ago. Only, my bill came to almost $3,500. Just so happened at a time when I was away for training at work. Phone company went after them for me. I imagine they would do the same for you. It may take some time, but getting it off your bill is worth it.

If I have in-fact been had how did it happen? Can I just arbitrarily send the phone company bills for phone calls that were never placed? Verizon is my service provider which is somewhat of an credible business if that claim can be made for any business. This is a scary thought because usually I don�t really review my bill it just happens to be a phone line I rarely use. What would happen if instead it was $5 would I have thought twice or simply paid the bill? It�s a somewhat confusing notion being that I would think many people don�t truly examine their bills all that much. Now if you take that $5 and apply it to enough bills you can make a killing, think further of the people that do in-fact complain you offer a refund and simply state it was a clerical or billing error. Its one heck of a scam the implications are somewhat frightening to me. Honestly how many people review their bill down to the penny? I am curious if people could just post if in fact they would take note of a $0.50, $2, $5 or other what degree of charge would cause someone to actually question it. Give me some insight into other thoughts please this does baffle me.

Originally posted by Milk
I had the same problem 3 years ago. Only, my bill came to almost $3,500. Just so happened at a time when I was away for training at work. Phone company went after them for me. I imagine they would do the same for you. It may take some time, but getting it off your bill is worth it.

Problem is, when your dealing with amounts like you 3500$, fraud is rather obvious and since its over the 1000$ damage limit, it can be reported to the FBI, on wich they have to act.

With smaller amounts, with propably an offshore company being responsible for it (usualy cayman islands and such) first of all, the fraud isn't so easily noticed, only after several clients complained about it. As you can understand, in case of 40$, at least 50 people have to complain with the same telco before a complaint can be submitted to the FBI.

So if they are smart and spread these activity's over the the internet and in case of this dialer, have a worldwide clientel, it takes a while before sufficient complaints are filed with the same telco, at wich point they can file a complaint and have the FBI or other agency's start a fraud investigation.

By the time anyone can go after them, they could've already raked several 1000$. And usualy the only thing they can do against these company's is shut down and block their operations, since these frauders are smart enough to live and be stationed in places like the Cayman islands.

Also, once shut down, they usualy just get another phone number and start over again.

The dialer uses your computer to dial their number, without you knowing about it. Their dialer has been installed on your system by visiting a site.

As the phonebill is only 40$, no fraud claim can be submitted to the FBI.
You can complain with your phonecompany though, could be they reimburse it. But as I said, could be they wait to the time(1000$) when they will be able to submit a fraud claim with the feds.

Wow.. they should do stuff about that no matter how small the claim..

So if Verizon who sends out my bill refers me to the company that is charging me, and I cant ever seem to get a hold of them what would be my next course of action? Sadly I am unable to refuse to pay my bill as I am truly in need of my phone. Its like a routing game to annoy and frustrate you when you call the other company. Anyone that has dealt with this already at a low price like my $40 would be a great help, also anyone that might just have the knowledge to deal with the issue. Thanks

You can refuse to pay that portion pending review. I've done it. Just get a note in the system with your provider.

If you pay it, it's over. You'll never get that money back.

NEVER PAY THE RANSOM!

And while we're at it...

Gimme back my son!

All you can do really is not pay it and file a complaint.
When the telco finds it worthy enough to persue, or has enough people complaining, they'll take a course of action.

If they take notice of 1 complaint right away, they might block all phonecalls to that specific 900 number, but more they can't do without the damages being high enough.

I have had a similar experience.
Simply by visiting a websit, often an adult website, and clicking on a photo or viewing a film-clip, these devious hackers can place a small program on your computer. Once they have their foot in the door, they can place larger programs on your computer. These may log the websites you visit or even every key stroke you make. The dialer programs use your own modem to dial a toll number, usually a 900 number, and you are charged by the minute. It's a modem to modem call, so you don't even know it's happening.

I understood what was happening (I heard the modem dialing out) and described it as such to the phone company, calling their inquiry line and starting the conversation by saying, "I've been billed for some fraudulent calls." They (SBC) were very good about removing the charges.

After taking care of that, you've got to clean up the crap on your computer.
These programs are often not detected by anti-virus programs, as they are programs, not virus'. While anti-virus may detect the original trojan, if one was used, you have to use anti-spy ware to clean up the program. Some of these programs are very clever and hard to remove, even going so far as to assign random names to their files to make detection harder.

Good luck. It seems to me the www has gotten a lot nastier in the last year or so. Adware, spyware, virus'.... I now have a firewall, antivirus and antispyware software running. It slows down my computer almost as much as the malware.



[edit on 14-9-2004 by cimmerius]

I got to say nothing pisses me off more then spyware or adware. this things should be outlawed.