Mystery calls hard to fight

Toronto Star May 8^th 2004
With Ms Roseman's permission

Shelley Herzog racked up a long-distance bill of $515 after her computer made 164 minutes worth of calls to Sao Tome, off the coast of Western Africa.

She knew something was wrong only when Bell Canada’s security department called to warn her about the extra-large phone bill.

While told she was on the hook for all the charges, she eventually got some relief.

Bell waived the cost of calls less than. two minutes and discounted the rest to $2.21 a minute (from $3.14). Now her long distance bill is only $362.44. ,

Herzog was one of many readers who responded to last week’s column about mystery long-distance calls to small overseas nations - most commonly Sao Tome, but also the Cook Islands, Nauru and Tuvalu.

How does this happen? When you're on the Internet, you may click a pop-up or download free software that gives your computer a new number for connecting to the Internet.

Chrissy Novikow had $405 in Sao Tome calls on her long-distance bill.

She never received an advance warning from Bell security and she's unhappy with the same offer Herzog received to discount the per-minute rate by about one-third.

Nathalie Moreau, a spokeswoman for Bell Canada, said customers can contest a long-distance charge by calling 310 BELL or sending an e-mail.

But she refused 'to set up a channel to review complaints from On Your Side readers - an arrangement we've made with many other companies, such as Enbridge, Direct Energy, Future Shop and the banks.

PhoneBusters, an anti-fraud call centre run by the Ontario Provincial Police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police, used to give out names and numbers of Bell executives to call for help.

That stopped after our column was published last week

We got a specific request from Bell to stop doing it," says Barry Elliott, a staff sergeant with the OPP, who co-ordinates Phone-Busters.

However, we can tell you that Bell's, executive office of customer relations is at 1-800-267-7734.

The number is printed in the Toronto telephone book on page 10.

PhoneBusters has received 349 complaints this year about mystery long-distance charges on phone bills. Total losses were $77,000 (or about $220 on average).

Telephone companies are intervening more quickly when they see these calls. Victims were once stuck with bills of $1,000 or more.

Nevertheless, the pace of activity is intensifying, In just four months this year, PhoneBusters has already surpassed its biggest year ever (300 complaints in 2002).

You can get mystery long-distance charges even if you don't own a computer. That's what happened to a 20-year-old Ontario student who used a cellular phone.

In February, he received a $131.88 long-distance, bill for four long-distance calls made to the 239 area code (in Florida). .

Bell said his wireless telephone had cross-connected with another wireless phone - an event that was extremely rare, but could happen.

The student was held responsible f6r paying the long-distance charges, his mother told US.

She had called PhoneBusters yesterday after seeing coverage of the problem on a Global TV news show.

Telephone companies are not making a profit on these calls, Bell’s Moreau told us.

"This is problematic for Bell as for the customers because Bell has to pay the termination charges to Sao Tome," she said.

"Plus, phone carriers don't have the regulatory power of unilaterally or proactively blocking a 1-900. or 976 phone number unless customers ask us to do it," she added.

This. blocking feature, which costs $10 a year, is worth the cost. But unless you ask you probably won't be told.

We think that telephone companies and Internet providers need to come clean about this problem. If they don't, the I CRTC should force their hand.

Give us facts and figures about the disputed calls. Insert warnings in monthly bills. Sponsor advertising campaigns. It's not enough to post messages on a Web site.

Meanwhile, there are ways to protect yourself.

* Don’t download anything if you don’t know where it's coming from.

* Always read the fine print and disclaimer notices.

* You have more protection when you pay your phone bill by credit card., That's because credit cards have a,60 day or 90 day hold back on disputed charges.

* Think- twice about paying your phone bill by direct debit from your bank account This makes it harder to dispute the charges later. ,

If you have an interesting consumer problem you would like investigated, please send details by e-mail to onyourside@thestar.ca. We will get in touch with you only if we handle your complaint. You must agree to have your name used in the newspaper.