Michael Smith Battling AT&T Over $1 Million Phone Bill

IPSWICH, Mass. — A Massachusetts businessman is engaged in a legal battle with AT&T Inc. over what he calls a fraudulent million-dollar phone bill.

Michael Smith, of Ipswich, says in 2009 someone hacked into his small manufacturing company's phone system and made nearly $900,000 in calls to Somalia. AT&T sued Smith for $1.15 million to recover the cost of the calls plus interest.

Smith has countersued, alleging abuse of the legal process and violation of state consumer-protection laws.

An AT&T spokeswoman says the company does not comment on pending litigation.

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Comments

[Johnangry]

05:40 PM on 07/10/2012

ATT lying, cheating and breaking the law? Really, I can't believe it.

[vamike12]

12:03 PM on 07/10/2012

At and T and going to sue this man for an absurd about of $ that they know is wrong. how f*up is that

[northern vigor]

10:43 AM on 07/10/2012

I presume the bill was for one month, or someone would have noticed the second month's bill. At thirty days that's $21 per minute.

[RecreationalPilot]

10:11 AM on 07/10/2012

The AT&T Account Manager shirked their duties to monitor and protect their clients.

No business opens up a telephony account without an account rep to assist them.

AT&T has all kinds of monitoring schemes to bill and control usage, but they cannot detect a pattern of fraud to a country that is already on the Federal Trade Sanction list to the TFG.

[Johnangry]

05:41 PM on 07/10/2012

ATT has never been anything but a fraud.

[Vivvy]

09:22 AM on 07/10/2012

Must have been a teenager with a new phone & addiction to texting.

[Leon Engelun]

09:14 AM on 07/10/2012

I got a land line.

[lensamy]

08:29 AM on 07/10/2012

Somalia??? Really?

[JackHoffman]

05:08 AM on 07/10/2012

$900,000 in calls and no red flags? Not even at $450,000?

[SueZbell]

03:14 AM on 07/10/2012

Some checking by AT&T -backtracking from the number/person called-- is in order?

[Michael Falcon]

03:10 AM on 07/10/2012

I absolutely hate AT&T, worst company in the world!

[Johnangry]

05:42 PM on 07/10/2012

I don't know. ATT is down there with Bank of America as far as fraudulent thieves go.

[roger g]

11:20 PM on 07/09/2012

When did Somalia get phone service?

[ResearchtheFacts]

11:27 PM on 07/09/2012

lol

[Xenothanes]

12:10 AM on 07/10/2012

Right after they hacked this guys company apparently.

[Judi56]

10:22 PM on 07/09/2012

jrpitcherjr, I thought a big company like this would be able to detect & see everything. & the fact that they have insurance for this type of thing makes u wonder what the hell is going on in this story? Maybe an employee from Somalia, called his homeland & tried to stiff his employer. The story sounds like what the......, but there has to be a simple answer to this mess!

[Judi56]

10:08 PM on 07/09/2012

Can they investigate this? Sounds like some kind of scam where the charges were reversed. For ex. some1 in Somalia, ran the bill up, reversed the charge to this American. So may scams happening today.

[fortressfountain]

09:58 PM on 07/09/2012

At and t is the biggest rip off. Years ago they hooked people up to 800 numbers for dial up internet.
None of the corporations are 1/4 as honest as they expect us to be by paying our bills in a timely fashion.

[vidtrainer110]

05:53 AM on 07/10/2012

Exactly. A perfect example is the ration of crap that anyone that legally walks away from their badly underwater house. Any big company would do the same in a second but that is somehow okay, but when a little guy does it....uh oh. We need our pound of flesh if we can get it, legally or not.

[Epilef2000]

09:08 PM on 07/09/2012

Seriously, who calls long distance when you have some free calling apps and software on line? Though, this is just more reason to get MetroPcs and other telephone cell phones..and internet phone companies that are slashing costs to the consumer