Web cramming problem, What is it? Should You Beware!

Copyright © 1999 BizNetOnline
Copyright © 1999 Associated Press

Wayne Holbrook, owner of Welcome Bait & Tackle in Oxford, N.C., was perplexed and annoyed when he saw a $24.95 charge on his phone bill for a Web site created for his business.

Holbrook has never even seen a computer operate, much less surfed the Internet, and he never had heard of the small Texas company whose name appeared on his bill.

"So I called them, and they said, 'You ordered it.' Then I called the telephone company, and they said there was nothing they could do," he said.

Holbrook may have been a victim of a new scam called "Web cramming" that has aggravated small business owners in recent months.

The N.C. Attorney General's Office is planning a crackdown.

"Companies shouldn't bill consumers for Web-page services that they did not order and do not want," Attorney General Mike Easley said. "My office has taken action against some of these companies, and we plan to take further action in order to stamp out this problem."

In February, the attorney general's consumer complaints division fielded 19 complaints from companies claiming they were charged for Web sites they didn't order or for sites they had canceled after a one-month free trial. Similar numbers are expected for March, officials said.

Easley's office began tracking Web-cramming complaints late last year. Several out-of-state companies are being investigated, but no legal action has been taken.

Cramming is a charge on a phone bill for a service that wasn't ordered. The problem escalated after the 1996 Telecommunications Act opened phone markets to thousands of new companies.

Typically, cramming occurs when companies that consolidate various charges on a phone bill under an agreement with the local phone company are involved, officials said. The cramming charges usually appear on a separate page in the bill and may reflect services such as paging or 900 calls.

Holbrook said he got stuck with his Web site after a telemarketer contacted his 13-year-old son.

The company offered free service for a month and promised to send papers allowing Welcome Bait & Tackle to cancel the deal after a month, Holbrook said. Those papers never arrived, he said, but he was billed anyway.

Holbrook said he has no idea what the Web site looked like.

After two months, his phone company, Sprint, finally agreed to remove the charges from his bill. But the telemarketers haven't given up, Holbrook said.

"I'm getting calls every week," he said. "When they say Internet and Web site, I just hang up."


Be A Famous Writer
Submit An Article

Please Visit Our Sponsor

BizNet Magazine Supports:
Because It's The Right Thing To Do.

If You Entered This Page Through a Search Engine Or Any Other Framed Website Click Here To ReturnTo BizNet Online Magazine


Send mail to editor@biznetonline.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 1997 ~BizNet OnLine Magazine
Last modified: November 08, 2002