Your organization may be the unwitting victim of two common forms of telecommunications fraud – slamming and cramming. Slamming occurs when your telephone or Internet service is switched to another provider without your consent. Cramming occurs when your telecom bills contain unauthorized charges and services. If left unchecked, these illegal practices can cost thousands of dollars in extra fees. To make sure your bills are free of these unlawful charges, consider a telecommunications audit from Telanalysis. During our comprehensive phone bill audits and IT bill audits, we review your bills and contracts for any discrepancies. Our telecom audits can help uncover fraudulent charges, as well as billing errors and other ways to save money on your company’s telecom bills.
Slamming, one of the most prevalent forms of consumer fraud, can take place in several ways. When business consumers switch long-distance telephone service providers, the change in carriers is reported to the local carrier. Third party providers of service use contests, surveys or confusing telemarketing calls in efforts to get a business employee’s consent to switch long distance telephone service providers. In most cases, the employee does not realize that by responding to offers and answering telemarketer’s questions, he or she may be inadvertently authorizing a change in carriers. The third party providers of service (or, as in many cases, the telemarketer acting on its behalf) will then notify the local telephone company that the business has agreed to switch long distance service to another provider.
In the case of cramming, it’s common for unauthorized charges to be small and subtle enough to go unnoticed. Although all types of unauthorized charges can be crammed into telecom bills, typically, many crammed charges are just a few dollars and are for vaguely labeled services such as “member fees,” “miscellaneous” or “third-party charges.”
The best way to stop and prevent slamming and cramming is with a meticulous review of your telecom billing. At Telanalysis, our telecom consultants have the specialized knowledge needed to identify instances of slamming, cramming and other forms of telecom fraud in your IT and phone service bills. Our consultants can also help you stop unauthorized charges and even obtain a retroactive refund for illegal charges. Because we work on a contingency fee based on a percentage of the money savings we find for you, using our services to verify that your telecom billing is accurate and cost-effective is risk-free.
Get the peace of mind that comes with knowing that your telecom billing is free of scams. Contact Telanalysis at 1-866-300-6999 to find out more about how your organization can benefit from our telecom consulting and management services.