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1. Protecting Consumers from Fraud
The NFIC stems from the National Consumers League's longstanding commitment to protecting and promoting consumers' social and economic interests. NCL works extensively with the media to raise public awareness about telemarketing and Internet fraud. While the identities of consumers who contact the NFIC and the companies they report are shared only with law enforcement agencies, NCL can provide the media with information about the most prevalent telemarketing and Internet scams, how particular scams work, the latest trends, etc. Information from the NFIC web site can be reprinted with advance permission and attribution to: The National Fraud Information Center, a project of the National Consumers League. Reporters should contact Holly Anderson in the NCL Public Affairs Department at 202-835-3323, fax 202-835-0747, or via e-mail. She will provide the desired information or arrange for interviews with the appropriate staff. Thank you for your help in the fight against consumer fraud! Be aware that charges for many types of services can appear on your phone bill. In addition to billing for its own services, your phone company may bill you on behalf of other companies for services they sell such as voice mail, paging, or Internet access – even for club memberships and other types of services. Cramming is when a company charges you through your telephone bill for extra services that you never agreed to buy. Read the fine print. Contest entry forms, product coupons, checks and other promotional materials could include an agreement to buy a service that will be charged to your phone number. Beware of imposters. Someone posing as a representative from your phone company may try to trick you by asking about your satisfaction with your service or telling you about a service change. A “yes” answer to a question could be tape-recorded and used as proof that you agreed to buy a new service. Ask for the caller’s name and number, and contact your phone company to find out if the call was legitimate. Look at “junk mail” carefully. It could be a “negative option” notice that you will be charged for a service unless you contact the company to cancel it. Don’t return calls to numbers on your pager or voice mail that you don’t recognize. A crammer may use Automatic Number Identification to see the number you’re dialing from and process an unauthorized request for service. Check your phone bill carefully. If you are unsure about charges that appear on your bill, call the number listed on that page for billing questions and ask for an explanation. Keep on checking, because even if the charges are removed one month, they may pop up again the next month. You aren’t responsible for charges you never authorized. But it’s important to notify your local phone company about the problem and pay the rest of the bill on time. Ask your local telephone company about “bill blocking.” There may be a way to prevent someone from putting charges for extra services on your phone bill unless you have confirmed directly with the phone company that you agreed to purchase them.

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