[bgill]

Our bill doubled this month so I called only to find out we were being charged for calling Canada. Excuse me, we don't know anyone in Canada so certainly didn't make any calls to there. Didn't matter to Verizon because they want their money.

I tried to find the number called but it is "unpublished." I did report it to one site.

[plain talk]

“Our bill doubled this month so I called only to find out we were being charged for calling Canada. Excuse me, we don’t know anyone in Canada so certainly didn’t make any calls to there. Didn’t matter to Verizon because they want their money.”

Something doesn’t add up. If you didn’t make the calls you should be able to call the fraud dept in VZ and get the charges removed.

[mass55th]

Are you talking about your Verizon Wireless cell phone account? Are the calls reported as being from one or more phones on your plan? If so, those calls should be listed in your “recent calls” received, or made on the phones you use. If there are no calls to Canada listed on any of your phones, then you aren’t responsible for them. Could someone have hacked your phone?

[lee martell]

If Verizon can’t or won’t verify your calls from a faker, it may be time to look for a different phone/ internet company.
Just as with a bank account, they should be able to discern what the customer’s usual pattern of calling has been, especially if this has not happened to you before with that phone number. If you stay with Verizon, you may at very least want to get a new phone number, if not a different phone.

[KTM rider]

Usually it is upper management at the phone co you have that creates shadow companies to bilk huge amounts of money. They got caught in the 80's, ( back when we were still citizens), now we have zero consumer protection. I fact it is usually politicians who are in on these scams

now I expect someone to jump in and say "prove it"....LOL ! thats exactly how they get away with it, you can't prove anything, and even if you could there is nothing you can do but just pay up and change phone companies constantly

[Yo-Yo]

Land line or cellular?

In either case, you should be able to demand and get an itemized call record of every call placed and received, and only the received calls could be "unpublished." Placed calls should always show the actual digits dialed from your phone.

If they insist on billing you for calls they cannot show you placed, then contact your state's telecommunications regulatory agency to lodge a complaint against Verizon.

The tricky part is that calls to Canada use the same North American Area Code system, so you could be dialing a company and not know you were dialing Canada (or Mexico.)

Canada area codes:

[mass55th]

Also, is it possible that someone on your plan got a text message with a phone number to click on, that could possibly have been in Canada, and they clicked the link?

I use Verizon's phone filter, and have it set for my phone to ring only for people in my Contacts. All other calls are either automatically blocked as spam, or silenced. The silenced calls I can then go in and check, and manually block myself. I get calls from all over the country each day, from numbers I don't know, and I've gotten voice mails for BS stuff. I block them all. Lately, I've been getting text messages from PayPal and other financial institutions telling me that access to my account has been blocked for possible fraud. I don't have a PayPal account, or any accounts at the banks the texts claim they are from. I block those as well. The problem is that these places will simply use a new number, and try again.

Our government has more important things to do than protecting Americans citizens from fraudsters...like making sure that Donald Trump can't ever run for office again.

/S

[Sarah Barracuda]

We have Vonage(which is pure garbage but we are using it in the meantime til our house kitchen remodel is done) the plan is called Vonage World Prime since my Mom wanted to be able to call Israel, but we always make sure to check all the phone numbers to make sure no funny business is going on..call the phone company to see what gives, perhaps someone hacked your line and is calling Canada up the wazoo

[usurper]

Excuse me, we don't know anyone in Canada so certainly didn't make any calls to there.

If you live close to the Canadian border your cell phone may be pinging a Canadian tower. In some areas their coverage is better then ours and this may show up as an international call even though you never actually called anyone in Canada.

Some of our Border Patrol Agent up north were complaining about it. Sorry I can't remember how they got it resolved.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Does your online girlfriend live in Canada or Mexico?

[Wilderness Conservative]

Phone companies wont stop all the overseas telemarketer calls because they are in on the scam. Politicians wont outlaw it because they are getting their cut too.

[sappy]

Report to the FCC. There is a Robocall Mitigation Database on which Telcos’ are required to register and attest to their efforts to squash robocall/call spoofing.

[moovova]

Haven’t had that problem with our Verizon acct...yet. Fingers crossed.

[JonPreston]

I wouldn’t pay. Also, my phone is set up where I can’t call out of country. When I leave America on business, I bring a burner.

[Bob434]

pay in chickens, or goats or something-

[Hot Tabasco]

Does your cat or dog have access to your phone at night when you’re asleep?

[Made In The USA]

Sounds like fraud if it you haven’t called any Canadian area codes, and the telco should remove it. If they refuse - don’t hesitate for a second to contact the State Public Service Commission and file a complaint.

I’ve been out of telecom for a few years, but I assume there is still call records that can be looked at that detail originating and terminating details. If the telco is robotically saying no to you (they’re being LAZY), a PSC complaint should wake them up.

Good luck

[csvset]

Is this from a land line phone ?

[yelostar]

It’s a type of call spoofing. I’m surprised at Verizon’s reaction. File a complaint with the FCC. They have been attempting to crack down on all manner of cell phone scams, including spoofing.

[Hootowl99]

You will have to speak with the standard customer service again, which I think you have already done. Don't spend any time with customer service. Tell them you believe you have a problem with fraudulent international billing on your account and need to speak with their fraud group. CS persons are limited in their authorization and knowledge level in dealing with weird situations.

If you can't get a transfer for whatever reason to fraud specialists then ask to be transferred to a supervisor. If that supervisor won't help sort things out ask to be transferred to their supervisor.

Be calm and respectful in these interactions. Going in with guns blazing on anything makes it more likely for the other person to blow you off.

I've had to work through all these levels a few times. It's always turned out satisfactory for me. It doesn’t mean things always went totally my way but it was a fair solution.

I’ve lost track. Is this a cell phone number on your account? If it’s a cell phone, there could be a malware script running on it. Go into your cell phone’s settings menu and clear out all the cookies, scripts, cached pages, history, etc. Only keep your saved passwords and favorites menu. .

[minnesota_bound]

Please list your phone number so we can all make test calls for you from different parts of the USA.... : )