Fewer Phone Cramming Complaints Lodged

The National Consumer League’s gripe report for the first half of 1999 shows a dramatic drop in complaints about cramming, the nickname for billing consumers for telephone services they never ordered.

The telephone industry adopted voluntary guidelines in July 1998 giving consumers more protections. Several companies now block third-party vendors from billing consumers for services unless consumers specifically instruct the carrier to do so.

Possibly as a result, cramming complaints to the league’s National Fraud Information Center have fallen from an average of 228 per month in 1998 to 60 per month in 1999. Cramming still ranks second among the league’s most frequently reported telemarketing frauds.

Topping the list: Work-at-home schemes that promise huge profits, but don’t deliver. Advance-fee loan schemes, bogus sweepstakes, telephone slamming (switching consumers’ carrier without consent), fake magazine subscriptions, misleading travel offers, misleading credit card offers, investment flimflams and unnecessary insurance on credit card losses round out the top 10.