So I was paying bills last night and found it odd that my wife's phone bill, which is as constant as the Northern Star, had suddenly gone up by a little over $15.

Curious, I asked the wife why she had ordered a new voice mail service.

"I didn't."

Well, it turns out that there is some service called www.easytrack.com (haven't been there myself) where if you sign up your phone number, you get $1,000 in free food coupons. The service charges your number $15+ per month.

Someone named Antikwa Folk decided to use my wife's number. It was unlisted, and the woman at the phone company told her (my wife) that people who do this simply try a slew of numbers until they get one that works.

Fucking whore. (Antikwa, not the phone lady or the wife).

The phone company is crediting us the amount, and we've already changed the number, but everyone should be aware of this and should call their phone company to put a "Third Party Billing Block" on their number to prevent it from happening to them.

I caught on to it in one bill. Imagine if I'd just kept paying it?

Anyway, FYI.

Happened to my mrs.  Called sprint, and they said they couldn't cancel it, they could only credit it back for that month.  They said I had to txt a # back to the phone number to cancel it, which is bullshit imo.  She never signed up for anything, it just started appearing on her bill.

Thanks for the heads up.



And just for the record, it's ALET, not ALERT.

contact the better business bureau.

A few months ago I had 2 $20 charges for recieving game tips.

Words were spoken that night. I got my money back but it was a bit of a hassel.

I canceled sprint all together the next day.  

Damn, stole my thinder...

That is why you always keep tabs on your bills!  Good catch.

I recently found a little scam that Verizon tried to pull.  Sign up for DSL service and a couple months later you start paying for an extra service "5GB online storage" or some shit like that for $7.99 a month.

I didn't ask for it, I don't want or need it.  A quick phone call to Verizon took it off my bill and canceled the "service".

Here's another one that the local power company pulls.  They ESTIMATE your monthly power usage for a few months leading up to the winter rates which are lower.  The meter reader gives some excuse about not having access or something.  They overestimate your use during the summer when your rates are higher.  When the winter comes they actually read the meter and you get all those kWhs back, at the lower winter rate of course!

I complained, and they made a special trip out to read the meter.  They ended up owing me back about $106 for 5 months of of estimated bills.