Re: OT: Landline Phone Service Scams?

About two years ago I had a 30 minute blank message on my answering
machine. It was weird and I erased it. At the end of the month I got
a bill from Verizon for a 30 minute collect call from Washington, DC
from Zero Plus Dialing for over $100. It was something like $4 a
minute. I wrote to Zero Plus Dialing and called them and explained
that no one ever accepted any collect calls from DC. They refused to
erase the bill and threatened to sue and/or ruin my credit rating if I
didn't pay. I searched the Internet and discovered that they have had
endless complaints that their collect call service has an automated
"press any key to accept this call" and the beep of an answering
machine is an accepted key press even though it doesn't match any
dialing tones. I threatened a class action lawsuit against them and
they stopped billing me.

CD

Per Cranky Dude:
>I searched the Internet and discovered that they have had
>endless complaints that their collect call service has an automated
>"press any key to accept this call" and the beep of an answering
>machine is an accepted key press even though it doesn't match any
>dialing tones.

Bingo!.... That would explain how my phone "Accepted" that collect call.

I've got to wonder who they're paying off that they're still in business.
--
PeteCresswell