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The Cram Artists

How Congressionally-Sanctioned Crooks Scam Consumers

By James R. Hood
ConsumerAffairs.com

November 27, 2006

The Cram Artists • How Congressionally-Sanctioned Crooks Scam Consumers • Customer Rep Rejects Her Bill-Cramming Past • NWNT: Crammed with Good Intentions? • You've Been Crammed -- Now What? --- Earlier Stories • Congress, Feds Sleep While Cramming Charges Afflict Thousands • Florida Seeks Nationwide Telephone Billing Probe • Florida Opens "Cramming" Probe • Cramming Hits Consumers When They Least Expect It • Spitzer Wins Cramming Concessions from Verizon • Mobsters Charged in Cramming Scheme • FTC Opens Hotline for Epixtar Victims --- • ILD Teleservices • Zero Plus Dialing

The ordinary household telephone seems benign enough, but in the hands of a careless Congress, drunk on ideology and intense lobbying, it has turned into a weapon of mass destruction, draining hard-earned cash from consumers guilty of nothing more than accepting a collect call, talking to a telemarketer or filling out a "survey" form at a bridal fair.

Not long ago, the charges on a phone bill were placed there only by the telephone company. Then, after a lengthy courtship, Congress succumbed to the charms of an army of telecommunications lobbyists whispering sweet nothings, like "consumer choice," "empowerment" and "free market." It cracked open the telephone bill to anyone willing to pony up processing fees to middlemen who process outside charges and forward them to the phone companies.

The fruit of this union? Companies like ILD Teleservices, Zero Plus Dialing and Northwest Nevada Telco (NWNT). Like Jerry Seinfeld and friends, these companies are about nothing ... except money. They take charges from supposed "service providers," tack on their few cents' worth, then forward the charge to the Verizons of the world.

Consumers who bother to look at their bill soon find themselves puzzling over a charge for "voice mail" or a long-distance call to a country they have never heard of.

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We have written extensively about this problem in the past and thousands of consumers have complained about it, but not a single member of Congress has yet taken the trouble to discuss the problem Congress created, let alone show the slightest interest in fixing it. Consumers, after all, don't count for much when AT&T, Verizon and Comcast come calling.

Our investigation of the Cram Artists continues this week with Joseph S. Enoch's investigation of NWNT, a Reno-based bill stuffer that has made life hell for its employees as well as the consumers who are on the receiving end of its bills. The first installment opens as NWNT customer service rep Frankie Molarius ponders her dogs' fate as she tastes the cold steel of her pistol in her mouth.

What's Next

The new Congress takes office in January, and ConsumerAffairs.com will be contacting every member of every committee responsible for telecommunications oversight. We will document, and report on, every one of those contacts. Congress can continue to ignore consumers if it wants but it will no longer do so under cover of darkness. We will name names and demand answers -- and action -- so that voters know who should be thanked and who should be retired come 2008.

Next: Customer Rep Rejects Her Telephone Bill-Cramming Past

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