In a small victory in an Adams County courtroom, Mike Thompson of Natchez won an undetermined settlement in a telephone service &uot;slamming&uot; case. Thompson said his long-distance telephone service was switched to MCI-Worldcom from AT&T without his consent — a practice known as &uot;slamming.&uot;

&uot;I’ve found (slamming) to be very common,&uot;&160;said Thompson, citing records of more than 2,000 complaints against various long-distance companies to the Mississippi Public Service Commission.

Thompson said his phone service had been &uot;slammed&uot; once before, in 1998, although that situation has long since been resolved.

This time, the number in question belonged to a fax machine at Thompson’s business, Bluff City Distributors.

Thompson sometimes uses the line to make telephone calls, also, he said.

In this case, however, someone did request that the long-distance service for that number be switched to MCI — not Thompson, but a person identifying herself as Casey Jones.

During a Monday hearing in Adams County Justice Court, Judge Charlie Vess said he would rule in favor of Thompson, simply because telephone customers defrauded by a third party such as &uot;Jones&uot; would have no recourse otherwise.

But according to court testimony, there is little either the telephone company or the customer can do about such a practice. &uot;It’s possible that both MCI and Mr. Thompson are victims of fraud in this case,&uot; Vess said.

According to MCI attorney Benji Bailey, anyone can call a long-distance company to switch the long-distance service carrier for a certain telephone number.

The person leaves a telephone number where he or she can be reached for verification. But that can be any number, such as a work number or even a pay phone number — not necessarily the number on which long-distance service will be switched.

The verification company then calls the person back — in this case, Jones — to make sure she wants her long-distance carrier switched and asks her a few questions the Public Service Commission mandates that the company ask.

Those questions include whether the person asked that service be changed, whether the number on which service will be changed is correct, and even the requester’s address and Social Security number.

During court, Bailey played an audiotape of the verification company’s conversation with Jones, and Jones did indeed ask for long-distance service for that number to be changed.

&uot;We did what we were supposed to do,&uot;&160;Bailey said, adding that the verification company’s procedures also followed the law.

Thompson’s service was switched from AT&T to MCI in June. Although MCI canceled the account and eliminated any charges, Thompson still sued for more than $550, mostly research and court fees.

Vess said he would issue a written ruling by Wednesday afternoon detailing how much of those damages would be awarded but added that he will not allow some of the research to be included.

And he pointed out that either party can appeal his ruling to County Court.

But Vess did express his hope that the procedure for switching long-distance carriers will be changed in the future to help prevent fraud.

&uot;Somebody could call as a prank and ask that my number be changed,&uot; Vess said. &uot;This could happen to anybody.&uot;