Watch phone bills to guard against telephone fraud

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Found one more message about the telephone fraud. Hope it will help you to protect yourself of being in the same situation. Be aware of telephone scum! Read the text below!

Everyone can take steps to help themselves avoid being victimized by many common telephone marketing and billing deceptions, and the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) often can help customers who fall prey to unethical and unlawful practices.

Paying close attention to see if there are any changes on the monthly phone bill is important. Switching a customer’s local or long distance provider (slamming) and adding or charging optional services to a customer’s account (cramming), without the customer’s knowledge or permission, are common fraudulent practices. The IUB has lawful authority to fine companies found to be doing this and stop them from providing service in Iowa.

Slamming can be achieved by many means, including direct mail or prize offerings, sweepstakes entries, or other methods, so customers should be wary. In cramming cases, services like Internet, personal 800 numbers, 900 numbers, caller ID, pagers and voice mail, for example, are often attributed to third party providers that bill customers through local phone companies.

When examining their monthly bill statements, customers should look for any new service entries that they did not authorize or any company name that is unfamiliar. Precautions customers can take to avoid being slammed or crammed include reading all fine print for contests, sweepstakes or incentives like bonus checks, free minutes, or raffle entries. These may authorize telephone service changes or additions. Also, customers should turn down pitches from telemarketers or listen intently, being careful not to answer “yes” to anything they do not understand. Local residents might also contact their local telephone service providers to safeguard their accounts by requesting a Prescribed Interchange Carrier (PIC) freeze. There may be a minimal fee for doing this.

Fax Featured Article

Hello all!
For today I’ve found an article about RingCentral. Hope it will be interesting for you.

Today, image is important, and nothing says professional like a toll-free or vanity number for your business. First introduced in 1967, toll free numbers were used by companies to provide customers with a way to call them without charge. At the time, however, only those with a high volume of callers were able to afford this luxury.

Now, RingCentral brings the availability of a toll-free or 800 number with a host of features including internet-enhanced voicemail, integrated fax and comprehensive call forwarding options at a low price.

Anyone can call your business free-of-charge any time, anywhere. Plus you won’t miss an important call, message or fax again.

According to a Chicago Tribune study, advertisers using toll free vanity numbers received ten times more calls than those just using the local number.

RingCentral’s True 800 number offers just 3.9¢ per minute and one phone and fax number. Maximize your time, personalize your business’ identity by creating a distinctive and customized vanity number for your business in addition to enhancing your professional image by building coast-to-coast presence.

Response Marketing Group issued a study saying that after listening to a radio spot just one time, 58 percent of the participants remembered the vanity number used.

A toll free number gives a nationwide, big business image and allows customers to call you for free, making it more likely that they’ll call, according to RingCentral officials.

Immediately activate RingCentral’s advanced telephone and fax features that give all the functions of a PBX without the expense.

With RingCentral signing up is simply. Just pick your number and if you already have a toll-free number, RingCentral can help you too!

After the initial set-up, RingCentral will receive calls from your toll free number and distribute them to the telephones you select.

You can direct all calls to a single telephone, such as your home phone or take advantage of RingCentral’s Virtual PBX to create a phone answering and routing system equal to that of a big company.

Any way you set up your toll free number, RingCentral will keep track of all your calls in your Call Log and give you real-time call management through RingCentral’s Call Controller software and call screening abilities.

According to the Response Marketing Group, the success of vanity numbers had long ago been established when 1-800-FLOWERS leapt ahead of the 75-year-old FTD, which enjoyed both a dominating position in its market and name recognition.

Neither of those traits were enough to keep the older company ahead of 1-800-FLOWERS and its easily remembered phone number, the marketing company said.