The Best Frauds, Scams, and Big Company Cons in America Today

BIGGEST FRAUD OF 2000 -- AT&T  L.D.  RATE  SCAM

AT&T HAS "BETTER RATES" THAN ANYONE ELSE CAN OFFER. BUT WHEN THEY SIGN YOU UP, YOU NEVER GET THOSE RATES. Instead they rip you off with the highest prices of all, and never fix it.

Note: For a recent update on other AT&T victims, see later in this page -- in blue, like this. Also, for another possible Fraud by MCI, look at the end of this page, in blue, like this.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:        Fraud by Deception and Ignoring Customers. Nature of Fraud: Undertaking massive advertising campaigns to seduce telephone customers back to AT&T, promising low rates that beat the competition, but never giving you those rates, and never fixing the problem, by simply ignoring the customer, and allowing no effective way for customers to reach customer service. Applicable Statutes: The UCC and CPA definitions of sales fraud include large advertising campaigns offering great deals or big discounts, which the customer never actually receives, for whatever reason. Consumer Fraud and Marketing Fraud definitions also include failure of the offering company to allow a way for customers to reach the company, so that they may effectively dispute charges and non fulfillment of promises. AT&T has done all of these things, and therefore their actions fall squarely under the statutes as constituting large-scale consumer fraud. Read this account to decide for yourself if this is calculated and intentional by AT&T, or merely a result of bungling incompetence and ineptness at managing their vast company effectively. Federal Government Involvement: The Federal Government is afraid to mess with AT&T. They have this perception that AT&T is one of the corporate mainstays of the country -- call them to question for incompetence, and force them to fix their mess, and the Feds fear that our economy will crumble. What utterly foundless paranoia. Our illustrious new President, George Bush, being so partial to big industry monopolies, is only going to make this situation 10 times worse. With both he and his father inseparably intertwined with many of the largest businesses in the country, there will be essentially NO HOPE of making these large companies responsible to fix even the simplest of customer complaints. Core Issue: The Federal Government has given AT&T the "hands off" to do whatever they want. Consequently, AT&T can make any claims they want on TV, in print, or anywhere else, and get away with it. The current Federal Government won't call AT&T into question for their deception and non-performance, so there is almost no chance that the new government will do anything but laugh at the problem. The solution would have been for all those blind people in the country who voted for Bush to think before they voted -- about how much consumer fraud can and will go on under a Presidency totally devoted to big business interests. It's too late to do anything now. You should have thought first. The massive AT&T marketing scam didn't hold top spot on the fraud list for much of 2000 for nothing. This scam affects so many people in the U.S., it sets a very chilling precedent for all future business in the telecommunications industry. Since telecom companies are so massive, many of them monopolies, they can get away with just about anything they want to claim, and are never called into question, least of all by an inept Government.

Basis of Investigation: We did not have to verify this complaint, like most -- it happened to one of our own staff! So we had day-by-day coverage of all the details surrounding the marketing scam. Here is only a summary. History: Our Staff member used to have long distance service with WorldCom, which was a fairly good company to deal with, before their ill-fated merger with MCI. After that merger, they started to force all residential customers to deal with the incompetent reps at MCI, almost all of whom were really rude, nasty women. Our staff member, also a woman, said: "I can't put up with these ignorant bl--- bi----s at MCI ! I simply have to change long distance providers." The Seduction: Since 1999, AT&T has been offering very low long distance rates, in an effort to seduce old customers back to AT&T -- kind of let bygones be bygones. She should have never fallen for it. But you only learn by trying things out. Here was the offer -- see if you wouldn't have bit: "We can now give you 5 to 7 cents per minute long distance rates to anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week -- no restrictions, unlike before. In addition, if you change over today, we will credit ALL transfer fees with your telephone company, and give you 60 free minutes per month anywhere in the U.S., in the first 3 months -- total, 180 free minutes." Sounds great, eh? Should have asked them to put it in writing, but of course, they wouldn't. Instead, our staff member carefully calculated her current long distance usage, and figured that with this offer, she would pay NOTHING for long distance service for at least the first 3 months. Why not take it? The AT&T rep who signed her up, confirmed this offer -- in retrospect, we think AT&T would have said "yes" to anything, just to get the business. Note that during the setup stage, AT&T reps managed to find the time to call 2-3 times per day, for almost a week, repetitively asking for approval to change LD carriers with the local telephone provider. But once switched over, that was the LAST our staff member ever heard from AT&T. Worse still, that was the last time she ever COULD reach them to discuss the account, billing problems, or insane charges. The Result: Our staff member happened to have a visitor from out of state come for a few days, so what better time to test out the new "5-7 cent" per minute service! Her friend was on the phone 50 minutes to his business, and when she got the bill for that call she almost died! It was billed at 82 cents per minute, with a $3.00 connect fee, for a total of $44.00, just for one call! The rest of the bill was equally shocking. Basically for a month's calling that would have cost about $21.00 with WorldCom, she was billed over $120.00 -- and in addition, NONE of the connect fees had been reversed -- and NO 60 minute-per-month free minutes had been deducted from the bill. What AT&T had done, is effectively charge this returning customer the FULL maximum rate that AT&T had been ripping people off with for more than 2 decades. To cut a long story short, 3 months later, the problem still hadn't been resolved. While she was trying to get out of this AT&T scam, bills kept rolling in at $100-120 per month, when AT&T actually started DOUBLE BILLING -- meaning she would get the charges appear on her local telephone bill, AND AT&T would also bill her directly, on a separate statement, for similar charges. But they were different enough that you couldn't really tell what was being billed on what, and which was overlapping or equivalent to which charges on the other bill. IT WAS A NIGHTMARE! Unable to Reach AT&T: Now that major billing problems had surfaced, it became impossible to reach AT&T at all to discuss the situation. They have one number and one number ONLY for all billing inquiries. She called so many times over so many weeks, and never could get hold of anyone on that line, it got to the point that we were beginning not to believe her. So we had another staff member try to reach AT&T at their customer support line, and he waited on the phone OVER AN HOUR, and never did get to talk to anyone. Such lack of prompt customer support on the telephone is unacceptable for a company that is supposed to have invented the telephone. Don't they know how to use their own invention? Finally, she did reach a support person, who was unable or unwilling to do anything at all -- saying they could not reverse any of the charges, since the calls were made, and they didn't know why she had not been credited the connect fees or the 60 free minutes per month -- even implied that AT&T does not give any free minutes per month. But of course it all depended on which "PLAN" she was on. The company has so many plans, they don't know what the hell they're doing. For a company that offers such a wonderful 5-7 cent-per-minute one-rate plan to everyone, you would think that the sales reps would have heard about it, wouldn't you?  What a massive scam! Resolution: Finally, we got a fax number that we were told by 3 AT&T representatives fed directly into their customer service department, and that any faxes received would be handled immediately. So we faxed notes, refusals to pay the bills, requests, and even pleas to call us so that we can sort out the bills -- this went on for 2-3 months, and NOT ONCE during that time did anyone from AT&T ever call or write, or do anything whatsoever to fix or even discuss the problems. In the end, nothing ever did get solved. No change-over fees were credited, no free minutes were applied, no credits were given, no adjustments were made, and most of all, no one ever called -- all of this from a company who supposedly lives by the telephone -- and they can't even use it! All they sent was a demand to pay by credit card using an automated system -- with no way to talk to anyone! Once they get you hooked, they play so hard to get, hoping you'll give up and pay. They were not the slightest bit interesting in living to any promises. This is the most disgusting customer abuse -- by totally ignoring people, like they didn't even exist -- that we have ever seen in our lives. Finally, we found a sympathetic ear in our local telephone carrier -- who must have received hundreds of like complaints, or who didn't want to get involved in the dispute. They were kind enough to reverse all the AT&T charges applied to her long-standing good account, because she had a perfect credit history with the local carrier, and didn't want it jeopardized by AT&T's incompetence. The Perfect Scam: If it were not for the local carrier, she would have been forced to pay AT&T extortion charges, or else lose her telephone service. But just imagine the sheer number of people, businesses and corporations who aren't so fortunate, or who don't look at their telephone bills. These people and companies are being scammed wholesale by AT&T, who seems to be relying on the hope that most people won't notice the rip off, and will just pay the bills without question. Add to that the intentional put-off of having to wait over an hour on the phone just to talk to a useless AT&T rep, who "can't do anything about it", plus a customer service department who evidently just sits back and laughs while they burn the stream of complaints that are faxed to them, plus a company that never even calls you to find out why you haven't paid their bills, and you have the perfect recipe for one of the biggest scams in America today -- fraud by initial deception and lying to you, never fulfilling promises, and then flat-out ignoring you! Right on, AT&T -- so well orchestrated, we can't imagine a better way to defraud the public -- just promise the world, and then play dumb as to why you "just can't seem to get it together". You readers decide for yourselves whether this entirely foolproof scheme was crafted by AT&T, or whether they are just "a big dumb behemoth" too messed up to know better. If the latter, then how can they just ignore the thousands of complaints they must receive daily? How can they conduct business without even calling customers, to see what is wrong -- why they haven't paid this month's bill? Would you do this? If so, how long would you stay in business?
Conclusion: In the absence of any logical evidence to the contrary, we must conclude that AT&T is hiding behind the label of a "monstrous and complex company", making mileage on that perception and allowing wholesale consumer fraud to go on, simply turning a blind eye to it, and pretending that they didn't even know about it. You can be sure that if the government ever called them to question (that chance expires on Dec. 31, 2000, after which Bush gets in), their response would go exactly like this: "Yes, we admit we've had some problems in the past, but we're working very hard to correct them now, and we're confident, moving forward, that we'll have them all sorted out real soon." Notice all the typical platitudes, buzz words and conciliatory remarks that American companies have become so good at, to completely hide the fact that they are conducting massive consumer fraud on a daily basis, and couldn't care less! The point behind those remarks is that you are just a "casualty" in their messed up plodding forward, and if your credit history gets marred because of their problem, then that's just too bad for you. You never should have believed them in the first place. The conclusion is, as of the end of December, the Federal Government will be absolutely powerless to do anything about this type of wholesale public consumer fraud, used by the biggest screwed-up companies in the country. So get set for a wonderful new 4 years of growing big-company liberties and ever-diminishing consumer freedoms -- because that is exactly what we are headed toward.  Only through repetitive class-action suits against the government, for failure to enforce its laws, like the Uniform Commercial Code and Consumer Protection Act, can the public ever see reprieve. In the mean time, this should have given you adequate warning to stay away from A, T and T.
Principles Involved: One of the most important principles you can learn from this true episode, is that if you left AT&T years ago, it was for a good reason. Don't doubt your decision -- stick with it. We also learned an important point, as we were dragged through this ordeal, and that is: don't ever sign up with a long-distance carrier who will apply their charges to your local telephone bill. When you find those charges to be fraudulent, and refuse to pay them, you will be damaging your otherwise good credit standing with your local telephone carrier. Our staff member who was affected, was fortunate to have sympathetic ears at the local carrier's office. You may not be so lucky. Look for a long distance carrier who bills you separately, and GO WITH THEM! Third, after going though weeks of searching the Internet and phone numbers for better long distance companies, we learned one clear truism: NONE -- repeat NONE -- of the long-distance providers that carry big ads on the television are safe to deal with. They are all trying to scam you in one way or another, and they're all exceptionally good at hiding the catches and caveats in their 1001 different plans, that are all guaranteed to be better than everyone else's. Don't believe ANY of it!!
HERE IS ANOTHER PERSON SCAMMED BY AT&T -- JUST IN, JUNE 25, 2001: I had decided to switch long distance companies from MCI. I found out AT&T had the best rate, at first I was apprehensice since they did slam me the year before (illegal switching of phone companies). The rate was good, and since I phone Canada a lot, their International plan (under $4.00) a month for .09/min was the best I found. I immediatly switched. I made my regular calls through the month and just got my phone bill. I was actually charged .90/min. Racking my what should be $55.41 bill to $197.11. I phoned up AT&T, and explained my story, I was put on hold and then was disconnected. I phoned a second time, explanined my story again, and again I was disconnected when put on hold. This then happened a thrid time. Finally the 4th time, I wasn't disconnected at all (really good for a phone company) and was advised I hadn't signed up for any International calling plan. I then got my welcom letter and there it showed a Calling Plan "One Rate 9 cents". On the description it says "Qualifying AT&T calls include direct-dialed domestic and internatinoal long distance". So of course I assumed this was my international calling plan. I then was told to fax this in. I was then given the wrong number to fax to and then had to call up for the 5th time, only to be sent to a manager (after a long wait). Turns out this manager didn't deal with this situation, but gave me another fax number. I finally sent it in, without hearing a single thing from AT&T about this issue. It seems with their wording in the Plans they have, almost any plan can look like another one. So get someone that wants an international plan, substitute it for one that kind of matches it and confuses the reader thinking everything is right and then boom, they get you for some horrendous calling rate... P.J. -- no state given {Note: please give your state when you write in -- the states need to know they are supporting big company fraud. Unless they are implicated too, they will do nothing about it !!!} Comment on the above incident: Same old customer abuse all over again, exactly as in the original complaint. AT&T has so many different rates contrived, and so many incompetent employees, they have enough excuses piled up to last until the end of life as we know it. The FTC NEEDS TO STOP THIS IMMEDIATELY -- but you can be sure they are in bed with the "majors", and will do nothing about it -- guaranteed!!!  AT&T is THE largest telecommunication carrier in the world, and they are THE largest scammer of the American public -- no contest.  So what were we told about our government providing that elusive "comsumer protection"?  Baloney.  And look at worthless George Bush, a total puppet to the biggest corporations in America!  What hope does the public have of getting fair and honest treatment by the biggest monoplies in America, under his corrupt "leadership" (if you can call it that) ???      NEWS FLASH!  --  AT&T Defrauds 89 Year Old "Grandpa" Here is a reader submission -- we find it disgusting that Grandpa was treated this way. How can one of the largest companies in America NOT take the time to shake up their staff, or throw them out ???? ------------------------------------------- I just found your page. Good job, indeed. While visiting my Grandfather yesterday evening, he remarked to me that his long distance does not work. He is 89, lives alone and is blind. I tried to dial myself, and it does not work. A recording comes on saying the call cannot be connected as dialed. Gr'pa said he's made numerous calls to try to get it fixed, he's been hung up on by AT&T, switched to an Ameritech operator and left on hold/switched to wrong departments. I called myself this morning and a woman named Marjory Gordon in the Team Management Dept, told me that she was unable to help me. I was referred there after speaking with customer service. All together I've spent over half an hour and gotten nowhere. There is no customer support to speak of with AT&T. When I told them this was the service of a blind senior citizen, this woman actually laughed and said "Yes"! -- As if it was funny, and what did I expect AT&T to do about it? He cannot call either of his children, and only one grandchild lives within the local calling area. His wife died last year. This is unconscionable.   K. B., Ohio -- May 13, 2002     Note the crux of this letter -- There is no customer support to speak of with AT&T. No truer words were ever spoken, as far as the complaints go that we receive. Add to that rude, ignorant employees who laugh at serious predicaments -- and what do you have? Something the FTC should investigate.   AT&T Billing Nightmare THIS READER SUBMISSION SHOWS HOW AT&T CAN DO EVERYTHING WRONG -- In September 2001, I moved from a home office into a rented office space. I had 5 telephone lines from Ameritech. I requested AT&T to be my long distance carrier. I also obtained two 800 numbers for my business.  After taking care of $400.00 worth of long distance charges for a six-week time period, I contacted a long distance carrier called PowerNet Global to take over my long distance charges.  I signed a request for changeover and faxed it to PowerNet Global, listing both numbers and that AT&T was the current carrier. Since I requested the 800 numbers from AT&T, I thought that the basic dial tone service for those numbers would always be billed from AT&T. I paid $60 a month for the two 800 numbers to AT&T and paid long distance calls (incoming/outgoing) to PowerNet Global.  I came to find out when I called AT&T to change office locations in the beginning of 2003, that they had not been handling those numbers since January 2002!  They had billed me for an entire year, knowing that they weren't providing the service for which they were billing me.  Needless to say, I stopped paying the line charges.  The rep on the phone said "well, I guess you want a refund, right?" but she couldn't tell who to contact to ask for one.   To top things off, I started getting collection notices for the 3 months I hadn't paid so far...I tried to send an email to the AT&T customer service center (because I could talk to a REAL person, just by fax or internet). That was March 24, 2003. It is June 20, 2003 and I STILL haven't received a response.  After I filed a complaint with the FCC,  I got a curt letter from AT&T stating that so-and-so spoke with me on March 25, 2003 and that since I paid the bills, that meant I accepted the charges.  Well, I DID NOT speak with ANYONE that day, nor did I ever speak with the person named in the letter.  When I called the person I supposedly spoke with, she said "well, you talked to someone before, didn't you?". The crux of the matter is : AT&T has a policy that they do not disconnect the numbers unless they get a call from the customer requesting that the numbers be disconnected.  Well, I didn't want the numbers disconnected, just transferred to another carrier.  And, the reason I didn't know the other carrier was handling the 800 numbers themselves is that they were FREE from this particular carrier.  To this day, I still have not given the direction to AT&T to disconnect those 800 numbers.  But I think they have, as I haven't received another bill from them for the basic dial tone. I just get calls from their collection agency. My attorney wants to file a class action lawsuit against them.  I'm trying to gather information for this task.  They took me for a thousand dollars and I'm still being harassed by their collection agency.  I need to find where the policy is that says they won't disconnect unless the consumer calls, which in contradictory to the paperwork I signed for the new carrier that stated all services were to be transferred. J. K. [no state given] June 20, 2003   IF THAT DOESN'T CONVINCE YOU TO BE WARY, WHAT WILL??? ( Aside: --We wouldn't pay for a class action suit. In the past, AT&T has weathered decades of class action suits, and always comes out on top.  So why sink more money into an already-losing scenario? If the attorney does it pro bona (i.e. for free) it's another matter -- but not to pay.)  Here is the latest about MCI -- many problems with MCI -- we thought this was worth reading .... I truly believe MCI is setting up Fraudulent Accounts! Detailed Complaint: MCI set up and is trying to charge me for long-distance service on a nonexistent phone # MCI won't give an explanation of how it could happen, they just want to credit me & sweep it under the rug. Yet the phone has been disconnected for over 3 months (a teen line). Then MCI last month gave 245-3811 a new account # under my name & address & are sending me a minimal service charge of $5.00 plus tax (yet there's no phone or service at that number, to even make local calls from let alone long-distance.) Even when I questioned MCI on possible fraudulent activities, They are quick to respond with another offer for a free phonecard, but yet no explanation on how an account could be set up on a nonexistent phone number I had disconnected 3 months ago. I truly believe MCI is scamming people and when caught they try to settle it with gifts & free offers. Most who catch it will settle with these tactics, as were only talking $6-10 per month. MCI knew that # was disconnected . Is this not FRAUD? M.L.L.  Latest Update 15 August, 2003