Late last year, the Federal Communications Commission announced new "slamming liability rules" to provide protection to consumers who have been slammed, and to take the profit out of slamming for telephone companies. Slamming is the illegal practice of changing a consumer's telephone service - local or long distance - without permission. The new rules apply to violations that occurred on or after November 28, 2000.

If you have been slammed and you have not paid the bill of the carrier who slammed you, under the new law, you do not have to pay anyone (your authorized telephone company nor the slamming company) for service for up to 30 days after being slammed. Beyond 30 days, you must pay any charges for service to your authorized company, but at that company's rate, not the slammer's rates.

Consumers should review their phone bill promptly to spot any unauthorized charges, especially if they're planning to exercise their right not to pay the company who slammed them. If you have paid before you discover the problem, the new rule says that your original carrier can demand 150 percent of the charges the slammer received from you; you are entitled to 50 percent of what you paid. For example, if you paid $100 to the slammer, your original carrier can demand $150 from the slammer. You will receive $50 as a reimbursement.

This formula is based on the fact that since the slammers' rates are often double what victims' original carriers would have charged, a 50 percent refund will cover the overcharge in most cases. If you do not think the 50 percent refund is adequate, you can ask your original carrier to seek a refund based on the actual difference between what you paid the slammer and what you would have paid if you had not been slammed. In any event, your original carrier only has to give you a refund if it succeeds in collecting from the slammer. If it does not, you can sue the slammer directly, but it is difficult to recoup money if a company is out of business or has no assets.

In you have been slammed, the Better Business Bureau suggests that:

• You contact the unauthorized carrier immediately to complain and tell it that you are not going to pay its charges;

• Call your original carrier to explain the problem and arrange to switch back to the calling plan you had before. There should be no "change of carrier" charge.

Last review March 2001