Added charges confuse Net users

Cases of cramming charges are becoming more common.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Amber Flores paid $10.25 a month for a service that was supposed to remind her with a phone call about upcoming birthdays, anniversaries and other important dates.
But when the calls never came, she didn't wonder why.
The suburban Cleveland resident never ordered the service and its cost was buried in her phone bill. With her overall bill about $60 a month, the 24-year-old cashier at a home supply store didn't notice the charge for 14 months. When she called her phone company, she was told she had authorized the charge.
"If I authorized it, why haven't I used the service?" Flores told her phone company.
Flores had been cyber-crammed.
The practice of cramming -- third parties attaching unauthorized charges to phone bills -- has been around since the 1990s. However, the instances of getting crammed through the Internet are on the rise.
Through the first six months of this year, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio received 176 complaints from customers saying they had been crammed through the Internet. The commission received 104 complaints during the first six months of 2005.
Ohio has no law that specifically targets cramming. Federal law allows authorities to order restitution or bar companies from offering services. The Federal Trade Commission can use existing law to penalize crammers.
Flores eventually got her bill credited for about $150 after she called the Ohio Consumers' Counsel hot line and the agency intervened.
The service she had been charged for was billed by a third-party company called Integretel. A message seeking comment was left with an Integretel spokesman.
Flores believes someone got her phone number when she filled out an online survey and used it to charge her. Others can get stung by filling out online applications or even downloading a recipe.
Some have no idea what happened.
A hurt familiy
Cindy Ferrebee, 48, of Elyria was surprised to see a $14.95 charge on her bill for a new voice mail service and another $14.95 charge for "tech support." The voice mail was registered under her daughter's name and she later found out the provider had the daughter's date of birth and her Social Security number.
She assumed her daughter, Christina, had signed up for the service while she was home on leave as a member of the Ohio National Guard military police in Youngstown. But Christina said she had only been browsing for an online college. When she heard about the information the provider had, Christina thought her mother had given it and was livid, Cindy Ferrebee said.
"That in itself about ruined my relationship with my daughter," Ferrebee said. "The emotional part was probably the worst part. It was something we didn't do."
The phone company gave Ferrebee her money back and all is well again between mother and daughter.
More and more cases
Ohio Consumers' Counsel Janine Migden-Ostrander, whose office represents residential customers in rate cases, said cyber-cramming is growing.
"We're generally seeing an increase around the nation," Migden-Ostrander said. "Consumers should be aware of the unintended consequences of what they're doing around the Internet."
Putting a stop
She recommends that customers check their bills closely each month and if they see a charge they cannot figure out, contact the phone company or billing service.
The utilities commission, whose hot line number appears on all Ohio phone bills, cannot do much to help, spokeswoman Shana Eiselstein said. The commission can investigate a cramming case that doesn't originate on the Internet, which it does not regulate, and can help if unauthorized charges are billed through another method.
"A lot times the people who are cramming we have no jurisdiction over," Eiselstein said. "Certainly, we can help them get in touch with the phone company. We do give some tips they can do."
The PUCO also refers cases to the Ohio attorney general, which doesn't track the number of referrals, spokeswoman Kim Norris said. Because Ohio doesn't have a law prohibiting cramming, the attorney general's office forwards all complaints to the federal government. Repeated messages seeking comment were left with the Federal Communications Commission.