Police Blog: Crooks Have a Scam That 'Crams' Your Cell Phone

Cramming is where crooks, perps, thieves or whatever non-pleasantries you feel like calling them, set up third party marketing groups that post bogus charges to your monthly cell phone bill. The “Cram” charges will often be disguised with terms like, “special services,” “internet advertising,” or “minimum usage fee.”

As we figure out that our residential phone land lines are not needed and disconnect them, criminals have also figured this out and now have migrated the “Cram” to our cell phones.

The tip-off is often a spam text message. Even though you think it is just an annoying spam text, don’t just ignore or delete it. You should read it because it might give you a hint that if you don’t respond to the text to stop the charges, you will start getting billed for a bogus charge. Sometimes though, these charges will still show up without you even getting text message. This is why it is so important to check your cellphone bill each month. If you see a charge on there that you don’t recognize, call your cellphone carrier.

According to www.clarkhoward.com, all of the major wireless carriers except AT&T provide a way to block spam texting. The New York Times also offers a compilation of these procedures.

Good Luck.

Officer Larry Jacobs is the Crime Prevention Officer for the Sandy Springs Police Department. He can be reached at ljacobs@sandyspringsga.gov.