When you get your phone bill, you assume the charges are directly connected to your phone service.

But some of those charges could be coming from a third party for services you know nothing about.

"Nobody really looks at their bills really closely these days because they're automatically deducted from your checking account or your savings account." said Sally Halela, looking at her phone bills.

But now she scrutinizes every bill for mystery charges, like the $8.43 charge she got from ILD Teleservices.

First she noticed a charge on the home phone line. And then, Halela said, "I noticed the same charge on a second phone line."

When she called ILD, she discovered she'd been billed for enhanced long distance and voice mail service.

"Neither of which we authorized or wanted," she said, especially since one of the lines billed for the long distance and voice mail is for a fax machine.

But the charges were not from ILD. ILD says it's simply the third-party biller.

With third-party billing, merchants provide you with a service, then submits the charges to a special billing company, like ILD. The third party biller submits the charge to your phone company. The phone company puts the charge on your bill and when you pay the bill, the money is sent to the merchant.

But like Halela, many consumers complain the merchant charges are unauthorized.

ILD tells me they process more than 120 million transactions a year with a small percentage of problems. The company says it has teams in place to monitor merchant business practices, including charge-backs.

And as a result of stringent business practices, ILD says it's even terminated billing agreements with merchants who violate their polices.

As shocked as she was to find the mystery charges, Sally was even more surprised when she called the company responsible for the bill.

"And they said they would cancel the service. And I said, 'Well, what about the charges?' And they said, 'We'll send you a check.'"

And they did, just like that. No questions asked.

ILD is just one of a number of third-party billing companies operating in this country and given the millions of transactions the complaint rate is relatively low.

But watch your phone bill to make sure you're not the target of unscrupulous merchants who target consumers by phone or through pop-up ads on the Internet.

If you see a third party billing that shouldn't be there, report it to the billing company. In some cases, consumers have discovered someone in their family either inadvertently signed up for a service, or signed up intentionally without saying anything.

ILD is now investigating how the charges got on Halela's bill and urges phone customers to contact them if they notice and ILD billing that has not been authorized.

For more information:

How bill by phone works

ILD: FAQ

ILD Blog

More about Third-Party Billing