For modern-day Alices gazing through their computer monitor “looking glasses,” things are indeed becoming “curiouser and curiouser.” And one of the most peculiar items to pop up on the Internet Wonderland recently is an outfit calling itself National One Telecom Inc., with offices in Dallas, and what appears to be a collection agency in Bedford, N.H.

Maine consumers are contacting COMBAT, a consumer advocate group, complaining that they received questionable “bills” or demands for payment of a “past due account” for long-distance calls they never made. The charges on the bills have ranged from $28.95 to $3,000, usually to a telephone number at the apparent location of a Web site in the United Kingdom, through their telephone modems.

The first curious thing about these bills is that the consumers claim never to have made such calls and are not in the habit of visiting Web sites. In some cases, the consumers claim to have been out of town or away from their computers when the calls were allegedly made.

Roger Caldwell of Bath reports, “I received a ‘past due’ bill for $95 from National One Telecom, Inc. claiming that I had made a 20-minute call to a pay-per-view Web site at 10:35 a.m. on May 30. I have never been to a pay-per-view Web site and never will. Besides that, on May 30th at 10 a.m. my whole family was watching a Memorial Day parade, and there was no one at home.”

National One Telecom’s manner of doing business became even more curious when COMBAT reviewed Howland consumer Susan Whitney’s account.

“I was accused by National One Telecom of calling an Internet site in the United Kingdom. I never made such a call, but even if I did by accident, I was never given a disclaimer. I’ve checked, and the law states that all users must be given a disclaimer before they agree to the rules and charges of the company. I never ‘clicked’ to accept, was never shown a disclaimer and yet was charged $26 for a call supposedly made on my computer. What’s up with this?”

Things get even more peculiar in reviewing National One Telecom’s dunning notice, which does not include a telephone number but instead insists: “You must notify us in writing or by e-mail, or postal mail. If you do not, we are not obligated to respond to your complaint or inquiry.”

Staffers at COMBAT are eager to challenge the company on that statement. But when COMBAT visited www.nationalone.com to access the company’s “customer service” department – where one must go to dispute telephone charges – staffers were met with a pop-up window that required downloading special software before we could enjoy the “full potential” of their customer service features.

What kind of a company requires downloading special software before you can even communicate with it about a dispute? And if a consumer already suspects that the company is of a dubious nature, why on earth would he download software from the site?

But stay tuned – the story gets more curious.

Next week we will share more accounts from consumers who have received questionable bills from National One Telecom, Better Business Bureau reports on the company, how modem hijacking, dialer hijacking, or “Internet dumping” could be involved, and how you should handle a National One Telecom bill should you receive one.

But for now, if you have received such a bill or tried to contact the company, please send Forum a copy – not the original, please – and tell us your story if you have tried to reach them to dispute a bill.

Consumer Forum is a collaboration of the Bangor Daily News and Northeast COMBAT-Maine Center for the Public Interest, Maine’s membership-funded nonprofit consumer organization. Individual membership is $25, business rates start at $125 (0-10 employees). For help and information write: Consumer Forum, Bangor Daily News, PO Box 1329, Bangor 04402.