Home Subjects Archives Quotations
Search: Search Tips

cramming n. The practice of adding an unexpected fee onto a person's phone bill

Example Citation:
"Call it 'cramming,' 'whamming' or 'super-slamming.' Call it what you will, but Lorraine Parker calls it a ripoff. Parker was shocked recently to find charges crammed deep into her phone bill for services she says she didn't authorize."
—Cam Simpson, "New phone scam: 'Cramming' your bill," Chicago Sun-Times, October 17, 1997

Notes:
Of the three terms listed in the citation, above, the usage marketplace seems to have decreed "cramming" the winner over "whamming" and "super-slamming." That makes linguistic sense because this practice involves stuffing bogus charges onto otherwise-innocent phone bills, and "stuff" and "cram" are synonymous verbs.

Related Words:
boiler room
crimeware
dot con artist
fat finger dialing
frug
identity theft
phishing
phone phishing
scam card
slamming
spear-phishing

Subject Categories:
Technology - Telephones
The World - Crime

Posted on November 7, 2000 at 9:01 PM
Updated on November 7, 2000 at 9:01 PM


 Recent posts:
  jingle mail
  tuxeda
  boreout
  scuppie
  allergy bullying
  IMBY
  agflation
  mullet strategy
  walkshed
  daughter track
 Alphabetical archives:
  A B C D E F G H I
  J K L M N O P Q R
  S T U V W X Y Z #
 Other links:
Top 100 Words

Recent Words

Recent Quotes

Word Spy, The Book

Word Spy Citations

Feedback

My Favorite Words

My Neologisms

Paul McFedries



Copyright © 1995 - 2008 Paul McFedries and Logophilia Limited