Posted on 12/24/2009 7:12:18 AM PST by markomalley
CREAL SPRINGS-Residents in one Williamson County town are receiving enormous phone bills, that have been inflated with thousands of dollars worth of calls to sex lines. Police say someone is tapping into to the phone lines and homes and churches.
So church leaders at the First Baptist, United Methodist and the Assembly of God Church in Creal Springs have noticed big phone bills. The calls are to numbers they know they didn't make.
"Those charges are to 900 numbers which are sex numbers," said Creal Springs police chief Phil Jeralds. He believes someone is breaking into the junction box outside of buildings, plugging in their phone and running a line to a nearby vehicle where the calls are made.
"That's one sick mind in my opinion," said Pastor Sean Kelly from the Creal Springs Assembly of God.
On the say he opened the bill, he was shocked. "We open this up and our eyes are just so wide. We open this one bill which we've never seen before this company it's almost a $500 long distance bill."
During the investigation, police found that residential lines had been tapped too. So far the tab for this sex chatting has amounted to more than $4,000. Customers are working with phone companies to see how much they'll be forced to pay.
"That money has got to come from somewhere you want it to go to help people you don't want that to go to you know, this," said Pastor Kelly.
He says he'll continue to pray for the suspects.
"They need to come forward and make things look right they're ripping off phone companies making churches look bad and ripping off people that are giving to God."
To avoid having your phone tapped, police say you should put a lock on your outdoor junction box. Or have 900 numbers blocked on your phone. And keep a close eye on your bill.
“Customers are working with phone companies to see how much they’ll be forced to pay.”
I wouldn’t pay squat.
Shows how out of touch I am...I thought the ‘900’ numbers went away during the 80s.
Would not pay either. I think our Bell company (Qwest, formerly Northwestern Bell) is fully responsible for the wiring on the outside of the home.
Me too-My first thought on reading the headline was, “1-900 numbers are still around?” I thought they went out a decade or more ago!
And not only that... they cannot hold these churches responsible for someone illegally tapping into their lines. The person tapping in (when caught) should be prosecuted and forced to pay restitution to the phone company.
Locking the box on your house does nothing. Call the phone company and block all 900 calls on your account. Also, block all long distance while you are at it. Use your cell for long distance and quit paying ATT’s exorbatant LD rates.
What these phone hackers are doing is hitting a remote junction box and tapping into the lines with a “Butt set”. Easy to do, takes seconds to find a dialtone and make a call.
These remote boxes are everywhere and not locked or monitored.
Billing Errors and Disputes
The 900 Number Rule has procedures for resolving billing disputes. Always check your telephone bill for 900 number charges. For each 900 call, your statement should include the date, time, and, for services that have per-minute rates, the length of the call. These charges must appear separately from local and long distance charges. Your statement also must include a local or toll-free number for questions about your pay-per-call charges.
Under FCC regulations, the phone company cannot disconnect your regular local or long-distance service if you don't pay a 900 number charge. However, you could be blocked from making future calls to 900 numbers if you don't pay legitimate 900 number charges.
If you find an error on your bill, follow the instructions on your statement. They will tell you who to call or write to dispute the charge. In most cases, it will be your local or long-distance telephone company, but it could be the 900 number company or an independent firm that provides billing services for that company.
You must notify the company listed on your bill within 60 days from the date the first statement containing the error was sent. The company must acknowledge your notice in writing within 40 days unless it has resolved the dispute by that time. Within two billing cycles, but no longer than 90 days, the company must:
* correct the billing error and notify you of the correction, or
* investigate the matter and either correct the error or explain the reason for not doing so.
A company cannot charge you to investigate or respond to a billing dispute. No one can try to collect the disputed charge from you — or report it to a credit bureau — until the company handling the dispute either has corrected the error or explained its reason for not doing so. Companies that don't comply with these rules lose their right to collect up to $50 of each disputed charge.
However, even if the 900 number charge is removed from your bill, the service provider might pursue the charge some other way, such as through a collection agency. If so, you have additional rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
That's kinda correct. They are responsible for the wiring up to and including the box that is attached to your home. This is called the "point of demarcation" or "demarc" for short. This is the box the article advises you to lock up. Unless you can prove (via video or similar) that someone attached to your cable beyond the demarc, they will assume that the calls originated within your house wiring and therefore is your responsibility.
They MIGHT come to some agreement, especially in this case where it is happening to several businesses/churches/residences around town. But they are will first assume you are trying to be a weasel.
The easy thing is to block everything you don't intend to use.
Bingo, you just tell them that the theft of services occurring on their lines is their problem. Especially since there are police reports as to the method and nature of the crime.
The standard should be that all 900 numbers are blocked unless asked for.
Some how the word ‘’rash’’ and ‘’sex’’’ look, I dunno, kind of ironic together.
And most Telcos charge anywhere from 1 to 5 USD per month to block 900 calls.
Better to dump the land line altogether if you are worried about this. Port you r home number over to the cell and away you go.
Muslim terrorists.
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