Telemarketers are bad enough; at least you know they’re trying to sell you something. But when entering a contest or calling an 800 number leads to unexpected charges “crammed” onto your telephone bill, the annoyance becomes a full-on headache.

“Cramming” happens when fees appear on a phone bill for services the consumer didn’t authorize or agree to. In some cases, consumers may have been tricked into agreeing to the services through a deceptive tactic that signs them up for real or imaginary services (with hefty fees) that they don’t want. Crammed charges can be hard to catch at first because most consumers find phone bills inherently confusing, but an unexpected increase on a phone bill can indicate that you’ve been crammed.

Can this actually happen? As it turns out, it can. The crammers make their money off of a telecommunications system that allows phone companies to charge for services on behalf of other companies. The phone company itself is not actually involved in the transaction, but they do funnel the charges, legitimate or otherwise, to the companies that solicit them. Here are two major examples of cramming tactics that have duped many consumers:

• The victim signs up to enter a contest at a kiosk or display. The fine print of the entry form, which is confusing at best, notes that the victim is signing up for a service by filling out the form. Later, the service is charged to the victim’s phone number, which the victim wrote on the entry form. The victim may never even receive the service, just the fees for it. This can also happen when a victim receives a sweepstakes offer in their junk mail.

• The victim calls an 800 number that is advertised as a free dating line, psychic line, way to meet local people, etc. The “free” service is anything but. The victim is usually prompted to say “I want the service,” and by doing so, they end up enrolled for a club or service program that is billed to the number that the victim is calling from. Often, there is no live operator or anyone available to answer questions about what the victim has just agreed to. Again, the service or club might never even exist in the first place.

What do cramming charges look like on your phone bill? They can be vague, for one thing. When checking your bill, look for charges labeled “other fees,” “voice mail,” “membership,” “psychic” or just “service charges.” If you didn’t authorize them, they shouldn’t be there. Another variation of cramming is when you DO authorize a charge, but it turns out to be much higher than you were told it would be. Look for those inflated charges, as well. Finally, check for fees that recur each month but don’t come with much explanation, such as “monthly maintenance fees.”

Individual consumers aren’t the only targets of crammers; businesses are often the victims. An example is when a crammer calls the company to “verify information for the yellow pages,” only to quickly sign the company up for a pay-per-month service. Business crammers smooth-talk their way into the money by calling a random employee at a company stringing together several questions quickly, one of which usually asks the employee whether they’re authorized to make decisions about the phone account (the company employee, after having said “yes” to a variety of general questions about the business, usually gets tricked into saying ”yes” to this, too). In the end, the crammer signs up the company for a questionable service, such as a directory listing, which might not exist but which costs a recurring charge to the company phone bill. One alleged crammer, Spoonfull.com, is under scrutiny from various state attorney generals because customers claim that they were billed small amounts of money for directory listings that they didn’t authorize (and in which they don’t even appear, in the end). Another accused crammer is Epixtar Corp., which is facing lawsuits in two states and had to work out an agreement in 2004 when the FTC brought a lawsuit alleging unfair and deceptive practices in connection with Epixtar’s sales of an Internet service (Epixtar admitted no wrongdoing in the agreement, of course). Companies like Epixtar deny any wrongdoing, though, because they claim to have phone records proving that the victims authorized the service. That’s where it becomes important to note that agreements gained through fast-talking tricks, intentional confusion and even phone record alteration do not count as authorizations.

What can consumers do to avoid being crammed? To start with, review your phone bill every month and look for suspicious charges. Even tiny ones can be suspicious; some crammers bill amounts of just a few dollars at a time so as to not be as easily caught when the bill comes. If you don’t know where a charge came from, call the billing company and request an explanation of the charges. If necessary, call your phone company and ask them how to remove unauthorized charges from your bill.

If calling the billing company and the phone company get you nowhere, there are other methods for handling the cramming. You can contact the FCC for charges related to telephone services between states, or the FTC for non-telephone services on your phone bill. You can also contact your state Attorney General’s office. The link to file a complaint with the FCC is here; the link for the FTC is here.

Don’t let yourself or your company be crammed; educate your employees, family members, and anyone who answers your phone what to do if someone calls in this manner. Of course, remind them that the “free” services advertised in contests, telemarketing calls and junk mail are rarely as free as they seem. In the end, the best advice comes from a former Epixtar employee who spoke to MSNBC: When you get a call from a solicitor, hang up.

Sources for this article: MSNBC, FTC, FCC, PCWorld.About.com. Photo courtesy of http://www.freedigitalphotos.net.