First, let's define "cramming." According to the Federal Trade Commission, "cramming is unexplained charges on your phone bill for services you never ordered, authorized, received, or used. Sometimes a one-time charge for entertainment services will be crammed onto your phone bill. Other times, monthly recurring charges are crammed. Cramming of monthly recurring charges falls into two general categories: club memberships, such as psychic clubs, personal clubs, or travel clubs; and telecommunications products or service programs, such as voice mail, paging, and calling cards."
First, try to resolve the problem by contacting the telephone company, information provider, or billing agent whose toll-free number is listed on your phone bill. If you call, follow up with a letter.
You should also consider contacting the office of your state's attorney general, which is likely to have a division that deals primarily with consumer protection issues. Check the government section of your phone book, or contact your local or state consumer office for the phone number of that office. You can also link to the Web site of the office of the attorney general of many states from the National Association of Attorneys General Web site www.naag.org/.
You should also contact the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov, or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the United States and abroad.
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