Worldcom Phone Scam???

Post #111,771 by Nightowl 7/28/03 5:04:50 PM Reply	Worldcom Phone Scam??? Does anyone know anything about Worldcom changing people's long distance service without their permission? I just spent some time on the phone with SWB for my friend with Bell's Palsy, who discovered that suddenly she had a long distance service, despite having a blocker code, and despite having it listed as no long distance on her bill. Fortunately, I was able to give them the code and they changed it back to normal, saying they would void any and all charges Worldcom might add, but told me to have her lodge a complaint to avoid Worldcom trying again after 30 days. Anyone heard anything about this? Nightowl >8# "I learned to be the door, instead of the mat!" Comment by Nightowl
Post #111,774 by Andrew Grygus 7/28/03 5:10:30 PM Reply	"Telephone Service" is a synonym for "Fraud". You have to watch every company out there like a hawk, they'll scam you and slam you every chance they get or can invent. [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #111,862 by scoenye 7/29/03 12:55:19 PM Reply	Slamming is not their only fort\ufffd... [link\|http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3100975.stm\|http://news.bbc.co.u...iness/3100975.stm] The paper said that the investigators were trying to find out whether MCI had disguised long distance calls as local ones, so as to avoid paying fees to other phone firms. The BBC article lists no amounts, but my local paper mentioned a figure with 8 zeroes. (Just found another link at [link\|http://www.msnbc.com/news/944683.asp?cp1=1\|MSNBC]. This one figures there may be another $1B skeleton falling out of the closet)
Post #111,863 by Nightowl 7/29/03 12:58:00 PM Reply	Re: Slamming is not their only fort\ufffd... Well I just learned it's called Slamming, that's the official government term. I didn't know that yesterday till evening. I'm working with my friend to get her a pic freeze (or as SWB calls it, Customer Choice Protection) so she can prevent it in the future. However, when you call the number that tells you your long distance service, it still tells her it's MCI. So I'm hoping maybe it's just taking a couple days to make the switch back from MCI to no service. If not, I'll be back on the phone to SWB soon. ;) Nightowl >8# "I learned to be the door, instead of the mat!" Comment by Nightowl
Post #111,935 by boxley 7/29/03 8:58:19 PM Reply	You have to call the local provider as the "owner" of the line and insist that without independant verification, your long distance carrier cannot be changed. How it works New company requests a port to their service to local telco, a request is made to the NPAC (a national manager of who getsa to bill againsts which number) who notifies old LD carrier that a change is being requested. The old carrier may agree to the change and send a confirmation the old carrier may dispute the change in any case some time goes by that calls are made over the new company's lines which incur charges. this takes a while. To avoid slamming, the FCC can ask for independant verification. If you insist that the local company demand independant verification, they will note the account. When a slammer tries to get your number switched, a company independent of the phone company will call and verify that the owner of the account approve the change, that should solve any issues. thanx, bill questions, help? [link\|mailto:pappas@catholic.org\|email pappas at catholic.org]

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