Received a $14.95 + Indiana sales tax charge for 800 Vmailbox service, billed through ESBI on April 2010 telephone bill. I did not know what this service was and did not authorize the charges. Contacted my landline provider (Verizon), who directed me to call ESBI. ESBI then connected me to 800 Vmailbox. Was told by CSR that my daughter had authorized the charge using an email address that she doesn't use (the email address that "authorized" the charge was similar to her email, but not one of hers). After much haggling, was told that they would cancel service and issue a credit. However, the CSR said that she was unable to cancel charges for May bill & that they would issue a total credit for $29.90. I later called Verizon and blocked future third-party charges. The Verizon CSR also said to contact them if a credit was not reflected on June bill.

After this happened, I read an article in AARP magazine that warned about cramming. A lady mentioned in that article had also been billed by ESBI for unauthorized charges. The writer also gave phone numbers for major telephone providers and encouraged people to call to block third party charges. I did so immediately.