{"id":512,"date":"2009-03-26T22:59:17","date_gmt":"2009-03-27T03:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poojanwagh.opalstacked.com\/poojanblog\/?p=512"},"modified":"2009-03-26T23:24:04","modified_gmt":"2009-03-27T04:24:04","slug":"got-slammed-or-crammed-by-esbi-email-discounts-llc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/got-slammed-or-crammed-by-esbi-email-discounts-llc\/","title":{"rendered":"Got slammed (or crammed) by ESBI & “EMAIL DISCOUNTS, LLC”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update 11:19 PM<\/h3>\n

Called ESBI who connected me to “Email Discounts LLC”. They said that “my wife”
\nsigned up for their service using Yahoo email account. I informed them that she does not have a account. They said they canceled the
\naccount. I voluntarily gave them my gmail account for confirmation of cancellation–I figure Google is pretty good about spam–but maybe that’s what their really after.
\nThey said that all charges (including taxes) would be reimbursed and no further
\ncharges would occur because the account was canceled. We’ll see.<\/p>\n

Original Post<\/h2>\n

My monthly bill from AT&T was unusually high this month. My father-in-law (who works for AT&T) warned me about this.<\/p>\n

In the bill, I find a section under the heading “Enhanced Services Billing, Inc.” with a logo:<\/p>\n

\"ESBI

ESBI Logo<\/p><\/div>\n

(account information)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Billing Date<\/td>\nMar 22, 2009<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Questions?<\/td>\n1-888-288-3724<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Below this, the following is written:<\/p>\n

Important Information<\/p>\n

This portion of your AT&T bill is provided as a service
\nto the above company. Please review all charges
\ncarefully – they may include those of a service
\nprovider not shown on a previous bill. Unpaid accounts
\nmay be subject to collection action. Other services may also be
\nrestricted if not paid. If you have questions about any
\nof the charges appearing on this page, please call the
\nnumber shown above.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The bills themselves are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
EMAIL DISCOUNTS, LLC #<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/td>\n\"\"<\/td>\nFor billing questions call 1-800-410-5781<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n-01<\/td>\n03-20<\/td>\n<\/td>\nEMAIL DISCOUNTS, LLC MONTHLY FEE<\/td>\n14.95<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Rest assured they were not<\/em> authorized.<\/p>\n

Further research on the web<\/a> indicates that ESBI is associated with<\/a> fraudulent charges on numerous telephone bills (see the comments). Guess I’ll have to call them tomorrow to get my money back.<\/p>\n

It amazes me that in a time when households are watching every dime, no one is doing anything about this fraud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Further research on the web indicates that ESBI is associated with fraudulent charges on numerous telephone bills (see the comments). Guess I’ll have to call them tomorrow to get my money back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[141,140,137,138,136,139],"class_list":["post-512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finance","tag-att","tag-cram","tag-email-discount","tag-email-discount-llc","tag-esbi","tag-slam"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":524,"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions\/524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poojanblog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}