I have been crammed three times by One Email A Day (aka 1EMAIL A DAY and oneemailaday.com) via Enhanced Services Billing, Inc. (ESBI). Their unauthorized charges on my phone bill amounted to $15.70, including tax, for each instance. When I went online to obtain advice for stopping the charges, nearly every site I looked at (my phone company, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), among others) advised me to first contact the cramming company to ask that they remove the charge.

The current advice (and practice) to contact the illicit company only perpetuates the illegitimate activity.

Here is the scenario:

1. The consumer complains to the cramming company;
2. the company - knowing the consumer has a valid complaint and not wanting the complaint to proceed any further - removes the charge;
3. the consumer is satisfied the charge is removed and does not file a complaint with the appropriate authorities;
4. no legal process takes place;
5. the company continues its illegal practices, depending on the unsuspecting masses to support its unscrupulous activity.

This is what ESBI, One Email A Day and their kind depend on.

As stated, I have been crammed three times by One Email A Day via ESBI. I have never, at any time, made contact with these companies, nor have I signed anything where I contracted for their services. Therefore, I do not contact them when trying to remove their charges from my Verizon account.

I have a hard time accepting that I must contact a company I have never heard of to plead with them to stop charging me for any amount of money.

My contract is with Verizon. Thus, I contacted Verizon - and I filed a complaint with the FTC at their online web page http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm each time I was crammed. All complaints were in writing so there could be no misunderstanding as to what my objectives were.

A note on phone calls: The phone companies and the FTC provide telephone numbers to call when filing complaints. I prefer to file in writing - and make a copy of each complaint. In that way there can be no misunderstanding, no "he said/she said", no "I'm sorry, we did not receive the telephone call.", and no misplacing of the telephone call record.

To date, Verizon has made the necessary adjustments to my phone bill. Unfortunately, while they remain polite and cooperative, they don't make it easy on their customers. They would much rather customers contact the offending company first. And, one has to dig deep within their online services to find the appropriate categories for filing a complaint - or disputing a bill charge.

If everyone who has been crammed will file a written complaint with their telephone service provider and the FTC each time they are crammed - and let them handle the matter - a greater effort will be made by our government and the service providers to eliminate cramming altogether by these scurrilous companies.

Taking the time out of your busy schedule to file a complaint now may very well reduce time in the future.

DD: Great points, Harold. Thanks for sharing them.