Be wary of calls to your mobile phone offering free handset upgrades or other promotions.  You may become a victim of what is known as "Slamming", whereby unscrupulous mobile phone providers trick you into switching service providers.

To better understand this situation, rewind to the mid-1980's.  In 1984, long distance markets were deregulated and consumers gained the freedom to select alternative long distance providers.  It is the opinion of Phonecarddeopt.com that, deregulation served the greater good, but with any change there is often abuse.  Following deregulation, consumers began to receive calls from companies with names such as "Your Phone Company"  or "The Phone  Provider".  Representatives from these company's would convince the consumer to agree to a different long distance service.  Consumers typically agreed, because they thought that the service would continue to be operated by their current long distance provider.

Consumers that switched would then receive exorbinant long distance bills that were impossible to reverse.  If the 3rd party charges weren't paid, the land-line provider (usually the incumbent long distance provider) would deactivate the phone line.  The FCC or public utility commissions did not offer any support, and consumers were left owing a lot of unexpected money.  The FCC later cracked down and enabled consumers to request a "PIC Freeze" from their telephone provider, making it impossible for their long distance service to be transferred without direct contact with the current long distance provider.

It's now 2007 and cellular phone numbers in both Canada and the USA can be transferred ("ported") to any other carrier.  With this increased competition, a similar scenario has developed:  consumers are being tricked into switching their entire cellular phone plan over to a new company.  Offering a free handset, is one method being employed to have consumers use a new cell phone provider without knowing it--and it's all being done legally under the laws of the FCC.  This problem is compounded because the transfer may have caused you to breach your existing wireless contract, incurring charges up to $30/month for the remaining term of the contract.

Phone Card Depot's Telecom Watchdog
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