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Twice Bitten
join:2009-01-10
Riverside, IL

Twice Bitten

Member

Crammed by ESBI

Quote from MGD:
"What is apparent the more you look closely at this, is the pattern of the same group of companies repeatedly showing up in complaints under new names. This short term name rotation is indicative of nefarious activities. It is clear the FTC needs to take a much closer look at the current state of cramming. This repetitive pattern needs to be investigated.
You can see from this ccramming blog started on May of 2006: »pintmaster.com/category/esbi/ then see the almost 200 complaint comments that follows thru to this month: »pintmaster.com/20060524/answerst···comments that there is a never ending rinse and repeat cycle.
The billing facilitators such as ESBI and ILD Services, appear to ignore the same group of companies with large amounts of complaints, from returning and feeding from the fraud trough." (end quote)

ESBI hit me with $14.95 thru AT&T. I filed a complaint with the FTC today and wanted to share it with you.

Enhanced Services Billing, Inc. (ESBI) charged me $14.95 on behalf of
UNITEDTEL 247MPS.COM through my AT&T monthly phone bill. A person unknown to me fraudulently used my name, address, telephone number, and a bogus email address at Rock.com to sign up online for "services" at UnitedTel 247mps.com on 2-20-2009. I called AT&T to have the fraudulent charges removed and was told to call ESBI in order to do so. I called ESBI, told them this was a fraudulent charge, canceled the service at UnitedTel, and requested a refund to be sent to me directly and immediately. The ESBI agent apologized and complied with my request and even told me to call AT&T to have them "block third-party billing" on my line. I, along with many others, am a victim of CRAMMING by this company!
I googled ESBI and found their website: »www.billview.com/esbi/, along with dozens of web-pages full of complaints against this company. I performed a "whois" on billview.com's (aka ESBI) IP address (206.127.20.143) and found that they fall under the "bsgclearing.com" umbrella. Whois Record for billview.com (IP206.127.20.143) Registrant: Billing Concepts, Inc., 7411 John Smith Dr #200, San Antonio, TX 78229. Whois Record for bsgclearing.com (IP206.127.20.144) Registrant: Billing Concepts, 7411 John Smith Drive, Suite 200, San Antonio, Texas 78229.
Here is an excerpt of what I found about an FTC suit filed against BSG Clearing Solutions North America, LLC, Billing Concepts, Inc. (among others):

"...The FTC also sued the billing aggregators - BSG Clearing Solutions North America, LLC, Billing Concepts, Inc., and ACI Billing Services, d/b/a OAN (collectively, BSG) and The Billing Resource, d/b/a Integretel - that billed and responded to complaints on behalf of Nationwide through their contracts with local phone companies (see press release dated October 10, 2006). In a stipulated final judgment entered in March 2008, the court barred BSG from, among other things, billing consumers for unauthorized telecommunications charges, and ordered it to pay $1.9 million to the FTC (see press release dated March 13, 2008)..."(full article: »www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/04/ ··· ram.shtm)

And another action the FTC brought against ESBI and BCI in August 2001:

"...The FTC's complaint, filed with the settlements, charged:
that ESBI falsely represented that consumers were legally obligated to pay charges on their telephone bills for web sites and other items they had not ordered or authorized others to order for them; that ESBI unfairly attempted to collect(or arranged for local phone companies to collect) payment of charges from consumers for web sites and other items they had not ordered and that consumers were unable to prevent ESBI from causing such unauthorized charges to appear on their phone bills; that BCI falsely represented that consumers were legally obligated to pay charges on their telephone bills for an activation fee and monthly minimum fees for a calling card, when the consumers had neither asked for the card nor authorized anyone else to ask for it on their behalf; and that BCI unfairly attempted to collect(or arranged for local phone companies to collect) payment of charges for an activation fee and monthly minimum fees for a calling card that consumers had not ordered and that the consumers were unable to prevent BCI from causing such unauthorized charges to appear on their phone bills..."(full article here: »www.ftc.gov/opa/2001/08/ ··· ng3.shtm)

Bottom line, these criminals have been at this for at the very least 9 years, have been sued and fined by the Feds, yet continue with their nefarious and lucrative business practices...all with help from the big phone companies...AT&T, Verizon, Embarq, etc.!! Can't anybody stop them permanently??
Twice Bitten

Twice Bitten

Member

Just a follow up. I called ESBI(888-288-3724) on 3/21/09 and advised them that this charge was fraudulent and I wanted them to refund my $14.95 directly to me---not credited back to AT&T. "Edgar" agreed to mail me a check, gave me a confirmation number, and told me I would receive the refund check in 7 to 10 business days. Needless to say, it's been 18 business days and no refund check in sight.

I notice that over 270 of you forum members have looked at my original post and can't help but think that a number of you may well be victims of this scam just like me. Doesn't anybody care to comment??
andysly5
join:2003-07-09
Colonia, NJ

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My mom discovered these charges on her Verizon land line bill today. She called Verizon and placed a block on the account. Then she called ESBI and was told the charges were for a fax service. My mom is in her 60s and has NEVER used a fax machine in her life!

Once she made that known the rep agreed to refund the charges directly to Verizon and she should see a credit on her account shortly.

After searching through tons of info on ESBI I warned her to keep on top of this shady company. I have a feeling that this issue is not over yet.

garys_2k
Premium Member
join:2004-05-07
Farmington, MI

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said by Twice Bitten:

I notice that over 270 of you forum members have looked at my original post and can't help but think that a number of you may well be victims of this scam just like me. Doesn't anybody care to comment??
I use a VoIP provider and no third party charges can be attached to my phone use fees.

OmenQ
Spazz
Premium Member
join:2003-03-21
Continuum

OmenQ to Twice Bitten

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I've been dealing with this same issue at work. We were hit for $65 in fees last month by ESBI. One claimed to be a yellow pages advertising and the other an "Enhanced Voicemail". We run a Cisco VOIP system in-house, and have our own internally hosted voicemail system that's integrated with Exchange.

I, like many of you, have little recourse in this matter. I called ESBI and asked for the charges to be refunded and the account cancelled. We'll see if it works, as I've asked accounting to forward all AT&T bills to me for review before payment. That's how these scumbags make their money, either through inattentive consumers or through businesses that aren't checking carefully enough.

I also tried to get a 3rd party billing block on our line (Which is a PRI line) and was told "I'm sorry but we do not have the capability to block third party billing in this region. Thanks."
So, I'll just keep reviewing the bills as accounting sends them, and I'll keep calling every time I see one of these crammed charges.