I made a change to my Verizon services in July '10. The August and September bills included a charge of $6.95 plus $.30 tax for "Integrated Phone Serv." It's right in the list of other phone charges and fees so you might just think it's a part of the service package.
I called Verizon. They said it was a third party vendor (flag #1) and gave me the number. No contact info comes up when you click for it on the Verizon site (flag #2). I called the number and the call was answered by someone with a strong accent from India with background noise like it was a call center.
When I asked what their service was and for the authorization to charge my account. The person said they had cancelled my account (flag #3) and gave me a confirmation number. When I pressed for an answer, I was transferred to a "supervisor," Scott Elder. His line had an answering machine, so I left my contact information.
I went to the company web site and it looked like a cheap conference calling service. Interesting that there is a "Cancel Account" link right there with the links for Home, Sign Up, FAQ, User Manual. (Flag #4)
I then Googled the company and found another report on Rip Off Report about this company. (Flag #5)
I called Verizon back and they removed the charges. I went to their fraud department and filed a report with them. I called the FTC and filed a complaint with them.
Then I get a call back from "Melissa", returning the message that I left for Scott Elder. She was very cordial and well spoken (American) and said she could see that my account had, in fact, been closed but it would take her 3-4 days to get the track-back information on how I authorized the service. I'll update when I (if I) hear back from her.