1. US MUSIC FIND, INC. (allegedly a ringtone service provider)

2. ID LIFE GUARDS, INC (allegedly a credit protection and repair company)

HISTORY: On my Sept 11th AT&T billing statement I discovered an unauthorized billing entry, and so I contacted the billing party, ILD Teleservices, at their listed number 1-800-433-4518 to dispute the first charge they made to my bill for Aug 14th 2010 (billed by ILD Teleservices on behalf of US Music Find, Inc. in the amount of $14.99). I spoke with a representative of ILD Teleservices named Rebecca to inform her that we never signed up for such a service, and never authorized the charge, and I asked her to cancel the charge, issue a credit, and block any future billings onto my AT&T monthly billing statements. She said that she would issue a credit, and told me that she blocked any further billings to be posted. However, on my Oct 11th AT&T Billing Statement, I discovered that ILD Teleservices had billed me AGAIN for the same US Music Find, Inc charge, and also added another new unauthorized billing on behalf of a company called ID Life Guards Inc. This time, I contacted AT&T directly to inquire further, and the helpful AT&T rep I spoke with was able to flag ILD as cramming the charges onto my AT&T bill without my authorization, and issued a blocking action for any future attempts by ILD Teleservices Inc. to post any further charges onto my AT&T account.

WHAT I LEARNED --- A GAPING LOOPHOLE IN THE SYSTEM: The AT&T service rep explained that he gets a lot of customers calling in and complaining about ILD and other such companies who attempt to cram billings onto the AT&T customers' monthly statements without the AT&T customers' knowledge or authorization (in a practice called cramming). The AT&T rep explained to me that, by law, AT&T cannot legally stop ILD from posting the billings onto the AT&T monthly billing statements. However, AT&T can stop the action IF the AT&T customers discover the charges on their AT&T Bill and contact AT&T to request anti-cramming blocking action. The AT&T service rep was very helpful in reversing the charges posted by ILD onto my AT&T bill, and he helped file an anti-cramming action on the AT&T system to (hopefully) block ILD Televersices Inc from ever attempting to post billings on my monthly AT&T billing statements in the future. The AT&T rep also recommended that I contact the FCC (1-888-225-5322 or http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm ) to formally file a complaint against ILD Teleservices and the companies that ILD bills on their behalf, in the hope that the FCC can take some action against those companies for Identity Theft and Fraudulent Billing practices.

HERE'S HOW THE SCAM WORKS: According to the AT&T rep, apparently these companies find people's names and phone numbers (easily available from yellow pages or other public info), and then use the names and numbers to fraudulently create accounts to bill for various services, which they then post to phone bills via companies like ILD .

The frustrating thing is that NO credit card information, birthdates, social security numbers or other normal identity checks or safeguards are used to create these fraudulent accounts; apparently, this seems to be a method for unscrupulous companies to bill people without having to go through the more stringent security checks or identity verifications that are typically imposed in credit card transactions processes....Since the charges are billed through the landline phone bill, no credit cards are used, bypassing the requirement entirelly! SO basically, these companies create accounts and authorize YOU to pay for their services without your permission, or any other identifying information, unlike other reputable business which would require much more detailed identity verification and credit card authorization checks, etc. This is a gaping loophole and many people are unaware of the charges because they are buried in their phone bills.