I found out yesterday that third party companies can bill a customer through their phone company without the customer's permission.
Credit card customers are liable up to $50 for fraudulent charges, but I'm not sure how it is with phone companies. Our fraudulent charge was just $8 for some voice mail we never ordered. The phone company said I had to complain to the third party to get a refund. The company's called "My Billing Guys" which just sounds phony. I googled them and found lots of complaints. I protested the charges and they said they'd refund my money.
Phone companies will put a third party block at no charge for customers on their bills, but customers shouldn't have to ask for this.
It's like having to ask the bank, not to let strangers withdraw money from their bank accounts.
I guess one way to make money in today's economy would be to make up some phony business called sexwithmonkeys.com. Look up phone numbers in the phone book, and bill the customers through their phone companies. Charge $5 to all of them for allegedly buying pictures of people having sex with monkeys.
Of all the thousands of customers, more than half probably wouldn't notice an extra $5 dollar charge on their bill. Refund the money to the people who complain and say they never ordered pictures of people having sex with monkeys. But the entrepreneur would still have all the money from people who didn't notice they were being charged for buying pictures of human/monkey orgies.
There's your free market capitalism in action.
Credit card customers are liable up to $50 for fraudulent charges, but I'm not sure how it is with phone companies. Our fraudulent charge was just $8 for some voice mail we never ordered. The phone company said I had to complain to the third party to get a refund. The company's called "My Billing Guys" which just sounds phony. I googled them and found lots of complaints. I protested the charges and they said they'd refund my money.
Phone companies will put a third party block at no charge for customers on their bills, but customers shouldn't have to ask for this.
It's like having to ask the bank, not to let strangers withdraw money from their bank accounts.
I guess one way to make money in today's economy would be to make up some phony business called sexwithmonkeys.com. Look up phone numbers in the phone book, and bill the customers through their phone companies. Charge $5 to all of them for allegedly buying pictures of people having sex with monkeys.
Of all the thousands of customers, more than half probably wouldn't notice an extra $5 dollar charge on their bill. Refund the money to the people who complain and say they never ordered pictures of people having sex with monkeys. But the entrepreneur would still have all the money from people who didn't notice they were being charged for buying pictures of human/monkey orgies.
There's your free market capitalism in action.
