My Billing Services, Inc. Shocked to see the name of this telephone answering service added to my home phone bill. Internet

This service appeared unordered on my AT&T bill two weeks ago. It was at the very end of my usual 5 page bill which I receive over the internet. Even though it was added to my home phone number, it followed the cell phone portion of the bill. It was just luck that I noticed it. I called the phone number noted on my AT&T bill and immediately felt it was being answered by an answering service rather than a business. The person answering did cooperate and said the charge would be removed by the next billing.

The irksome part of this procedure is that today I tried to reach the "company" by internet and even though a page of references was listed by Google, none of the web addresses were legitimate in that there were no working links. The only other information provided was a generic letter with no specific information about me and thanking me for ordering their "enhanced voice mail service." Interestingly enough the second paragraph commented that if I had not ordered the service, to click on the noted link. Of course, it did not connect to anything.

I subsequently contacted AT&T who immediately recognized the service I mentioned and said AT&T would immediately remove the charge from by bill and credit me for that amount! I also learned that DPUC (Dept. of Public Utilities Commission) in my state has recently made it illegal for third parties to add services to phone accounts.

Even though I experienced Identify Theft three years ago, I was still amazed and upset to be so easily exposed to fraud like this. I guess I best wise up.