Some poor soul recently received a $21k cell phone bill from Cingular.

Of course the first thing they did was to get on the phone and complain that there had to be some mistake.

Cingular responded that yes there was a mistake, the bill was now $31k and not $21k.

Most of the calls were made to Nicaraugua and many of the numbers were 000-000-0000 numbers.  The senior claimed that they had not made 165 calls per day to Nicaragua and didn't know anyone there either.

Cingular kicked it over to their super smart fraud team that came to the conclusion, that there was no fraud involved and that the calls were legit!

So of course then the Senior went to that great source of customer service and support, the local news.

The local news picked up the story and the bad press added up to more than $31k so Cingular forgave the bill and the Senior is looking for a new wireless carrier.