ESBI unauthorized billing on ATTT phone bill ripoff internet

I used to get hit several times a year by some variation of these fake billing scams; OAN, Telseven, USBI, ESBI. It seems that I was high on their fraud lists. It got to where I was fighting one or the other of these companies almost every single month! I wasted many hours in unproductive attempts to be removed from their systems. Finally, I had had enough. I realized that their greed outweighed my patience by a lot.

First I went through all my phone bills for several years back and copied all the bills showing where any of these entities had tried to falsely bill me. I calculated the hours spent trying to receive credit for their fake billings.

Then I wrote a "blanket complaint" about all of them to my state Attorney General. I stated that it is my belief that these scam companies use online telephone directories to harvest billing numbers for fraudulent purposes. (My unlisted number never gets these billings, only my listed one).

First there were the "collect call" scams where I was supposedly accepting calls from hospitals or prisons all around the country, so I stopped that with a third party billing block. Then the scam morphed into "directory assistance" calls to NV at midnight to this number: 702-555-1212. There seemed to be a never ending list of ways to steal from me through my phone company!

I sent copies of all the bills with the appropriate areas highlighted for the ease of the AG's office and ended my letter this way:

"Can something be done to stop this? It is outrageous, time-wasting and infuriating. This seems like a "legal form" of identity theft. Phone numbers are the last numbers citizens have that we cannot keep hidden away, so now someone has found a way to use them for fraudulent purposes. And the attempts at fraud have gone on for years in my case as the documents show. What can I do to stop this once and for all? I am completely weary with fighting it."

Within a couple of weeks I had copies of letters from my AG's office where all the fraudsters claimed (of course) that I had made/received all these calls. BUT, that in the "interest of fairness they would cancel the billings and remove me from their databases and I would no longer be allowed to use their services, blah, blah". Well, hallelujah, that is exactly what I wanted, considering that I had never "used their services" in the first place.

My letter to the AG was dated March 26, 2006 and I have not had one single fraudulent billing from any of them since. Nearly a whole year of peace. I no longer dread opening my phone bill and the lady at the phone company no longer has to listen to me gripe. While I was at it I also filed online complaints with both the FTC and the FCC (because it is the FCC that allows this fraudulently used third party billing system to be in place).

Moral of the story is: FIGHT BACK! They do not like being contacted by any AG. They do not like complaints logged about them at the FTC and FCC because, frankly, both those agencies are already on to them. Your goal must be to cause them at least as much misery and frustration as they have caused you! Once you accomplish that, it seems that they will leave you alone permanently.

I used to get hit several times a year by some variation of these fake billing scams; OAN, Telseven, USBI, ESBI. It seems that I was high on their fraud lists. It got to where I was fighting one or the other of these companies almost every single month! I wasted many hours in unproductive attempts to be removed from their systems. Finally, I had had enough. I realized that their greed outweighed my patience by a lot.

First I went through all my phone bills for several years back and copied all the bills showing where any of these entities had tried to falsely bill me. I calculated the hours spent trying to receive credit for their fake billings.

Then I wrote a "blanket complaint" about all of them to my state Attorney General. I stated that it is my belief that these scam companies use online telephone directories to harvest billing numbers for fraudulent purposes. (My unlisted number never gets these billings, only my listed one).

First there were the "collect call" scams where I was supposedly accepting calls from hospitals or prisons all around the country, so I stopped that with a third party billing block. Then the scam morphed into "directory assistance" calls to NV at midnight to this number: 702-555-1212. There seemed to be a never ending list of ways to steal from me through my phone company!

I sent copies of all the bills with the appropriate areas highlighted for the ease of the AG's office and ended my letter this way:

"Can something be done to stop this? It is outrageous, time-wasting and infuriating. This seems like a "legal form" of identity theft. Phone numbers are the last numbers citizens have that we cannot keep hidden away, so now someone has found a way to use them for fraudulent purposes. And the attempts at fraud have gone on for years in my case as the documents show. What can I do to stop this once and for all? I am completely weary with fighting it."

Within a couple of weeks I had copies of letters from my AG's office where all the fraudsters claimed (of course) that I had made/received all these calls. BUT, that in the "interest of fairness they would cancel the billings and remove me from their databases and I would no longer be allowed to use their services, blah, blah". Well, hallelujah, that is exactly what I wanted, considering that I had never "used their services" in the first place.

My letter to the AG was dated March 26, 2006 and I have not had one single fraudulent billing from any of them since. Nearly a whole year of peace. I no longer dread opening my phone bill and the lady at the phone company no longer has to listen to me gripe. While I was at it I also filed online complaints with both the FTC and the FCC (because it is the FCC that allows this fraudulently used third party billing system to be in place).

Moral of the story is: FIGHT BACK! They do not like being contacted by any AG. They do not like complaints logged about them at the FTC and FCC because, frankly, both those agencies are already on to them. Your goal must be to cause them at least as much misery and frustration as they have caused you! Once you accomplish that, it seems that they will leave you alone permanently.

I used to get hit several times a year by some variation of these fake billing scams; OAN, Telseven, USBI, ESBI. It seems that I was high on their fraud lists. It got to where I was fighting one or the other of these companies almost every single month! I wasted many hours in unproductive attempts to be removed from their systems. Finally, I had had enough. I realized that their greed outweighed my patience by a lot.

First I went through all my phone bills for several years back and copied all the bills showing where any of these entities had tried to falsely bill me. I calculated the hours spent trying to receive credit for their fake billings.

Then I wrote a "blanket complaint" about all of them to my state Attorney General. I stated that it is my belief that these scam companies use online telephone directories to harvest billing numbers for fraudulent purposes. (My unlisted number never gets these billings, only my listed one).

First there were the "collect call" scams where I was supposedly accepting calls from hospitals or prisons all around the country, so I stopped that with a third party billing block. Then the scam morphed into "directory assistance" calls to NV at midnight to this number: 702-555-1212. There seemed to be a never ending list of ways to steal from me through my phone company!

I sent copies of all the bills with the appropriate areas highlighted for the ease of the AG's office and ended my letter this way:

"Can something be done to stop this? It is outrageous, time-wasting and infuriating. This seems like a "legal form" of identity theft. Phone numbers are the last numbers citizens have that we cannot keep hidden away, so now someone has found a way to use them for fraudulent purposes. And the attempts at fraud have gone on for years in my case as the documents show. What can I do to stop this once and for all? I am completely weary with fighting it."

Within a couple of weeks I had copies of letters from my AG's office where all the fraudsters claimed (of course) that I had made/received all these calls. BUT, that in the "interest of fairness they would cancel the billings and remove me from their databases and I would no longer be allowed to use their services, blah, blah". Well, hallelujah, that is exactly what I wanted, considering that I had never "used their services" in the first place.

My letter to the AG was dated March 26, 2006 and I have not had one single fraudulent billing from any of them since. Nearly a whole year of peace. I no longer dread opening my phone bill and the lady at the phone company no longer has to listen to me gripe. While I was at it I also filed online complaints with both the FTC and the FCC (because it is the FCC that allows this fraudulently used third party billing system to be in place).

Moral of the story is: FIGHT BACK! They do not like being contacted by any AG. They do not like complaints logged about them at the FTC and FCC because, frankly, both those agencies are already on to them. Your goal must be to cause them at least as much misery and frustration as they have caused you! Once you accomplish that, it seems that they will leave you alone permanently.

I used to get hit several times a year by some variation of these fake billing scams; OAN, Telseven, USBI, ESBI. It seems that I was high on their fraud lists. It got to where I was fighting one or the other of these companies almost every single month! I wasted many hours in unproductive attempts to be removed from their systems. Finally, I had had enough. I realized that their greed outweighed my patience by a lot.

First I went through all my phone bills for several years back and copied all the bills showing where any of these entities had tried to falsely bill me. I calculated the hours spent trying to receive credit for their fake billings.

Then I wrote a "blanket complaint" about all of them to my state Attorney General. I stated that it is my belief that these scam companies use online telephone directories to harvest billing numbers for fraudulent purposes. (My unlisted number never gets these billings, only my listed one).

First there were the "collect call" scams where I was supposedly accepting calls from hospitals or prisons all around the country, so I stopped that with a third party billing block. Then the scam morphed into "directory assistance" calls to NV at midnight to this number: 702-555-1212. There seemed to be a never ending list of ways to steal from me through my phone company!

I sent copies of all the bills with the appropriate areas highlighted for the ease of the AG's office and ended my letter this way:

"Can something be done to stop this? It is outrageous, time-wasting and infuriating. This seems like a "legal form" of identity theft. Phone numbers are the last numbers citizens have that we cannot keep hidden away, so now someone has found a way to use them for fraudulent purposes. And the attempts at fraud have gone on for years in my case as the documents show. What can I do to stop this once and for all? I am completely weary with fighting it."

Within a couple of weeks I had copies of letters from my AG's office where all the fraudsters claimed (of course) that I had made/received all these calls. BUT, that in the "interest of fairness they would cancel the billings and remove me from their databases and I would no longer be allowed to use their services, blah, blah". Well, hallelujah, that is exactly what I wanted, considering that I had never "used their services" in the first place.

My letter to the AG was dated March 26, 2006 and I have not had one single fraudulent billing from any of them since. Nearly a whole year of peace. I no longer dread opening my phone bill and the lady at the phone company no longer has to listen to me gripe. While I was at it I also filed online complaints with both the FTC and the FCC (because it is the FCC that allows this fraudulently used third party billing system to be in place).

Moral of the story is: FIGHT BACK! They do not like being contacted by any AG. They do not like complaints logged about them at the FTC and FCC because, frankly, both those agencies are already on to them. Your goal must be to cause them at least as much misery and frustration as they have caused you! Once you accomplish that, it seems that they will leave you alone permanently.