Premium rate dialer scams

14 Jan 2005

A few months back, I had a problem where my computer kept dropping its internet connection. It immediately re-dialled afterwards and reconnected.
Now I suspected that something was suspicious about this, so at first I logged off after a couple of minutes, and then when it kept happening I pulled the plug out of the phone line every time the connection dropped.
Anyway, the phone bill arrives - and guess what??? yep, extra charges for dialling premium rate numbers.
I checked out the numbers and got the addresses of 2 companies in Panama and Delaware (currently under investigation), and armed with this information ring BT to get something done about the bill. BT told me that there is nothing they can do and they only make a small percentage of the cost of premium rate numbers and I would still have to pay the bill. evil

Well it felt like being mugged and writing the f*****g mugger a cheque.
So, best advice I can give if you have a dial up connection is to ring up BT and get a bar on premium rate numbers.
I just thank my lucky stars that I suspected and it only ended up costing me Â£35. I've since heard of peoples bills coming in at Â£500 and more. So beware people. Its not just the burglars we have to worry about.
Anybody else had a similar experience?

14 Jan 2005

i had a trogen once my virus checker picked up
did the same thing
but i was alerted straight away
was told it dont happen on broadband ....

14 Jan 2005

hiyas marky,
iask a friend of mine about her 400 quid phone bill! rolleyes

bloody sick of going through all the spyware / dialler stuff with her. lol

first off, if you're using IE ((( and i suspect you are??? ))) bin it and get a different browser, like Opera or Firefox. solves a shedload of browser hijack problems in one fell swoop.
second, hang fire on the bill. BT are under a lot of pressure from regulators on this, and have pretty much been instructed to look into it, and start blocking numbers known to be used for dialler scamming. it's unlikely they'll back down, cos the diallers just keep changing numbers to avoid the blocking, but always worth kicking up a stink just in case.
third, stop looking at porn you perv! :P ;)
neil x x x ;)

14 Jan 2005

14 Jan 2005

second, hang fire on the bill. BT are under a lot of pressure from regulators on this, and have pretty much been instructed to look into it, and start blocking numbers known to be used for dialler scamming. it's unlikely they'll back down, cos the diallers just keep changing numbers to avoid the blocking, but always worth kicking up a stink just in case.
third, stop looking at porn you perv! :P ;)
neil x x x ;)

Hi Neil
Too late already paid the bill - couldnt be bothered for 35 quid, already spent a couple of hours tracking down the numbers etc.
Jeez, do these things come from porn sites??? I must have bloody hundreds on my computer then!!!!

14 Jan 2005

Quote by cool4catz
That third option is impossible, surely? Bloke+internet=porn, you can't deny simple facts of life.

ah yeah . . a good point, well made! ;)
ok then, realistically, either develop a fetish for piss poor quality TGP sites, or if you're on broadband, find some good file share software so you don't have to use ya browser to download. not that i'd know anything whatsoever about any of this you understand. :P
hope this helps? :P
neil x x x ;)

14 Jan 2005

Not all diallers use recognised prem rate numbers.
I had one install itself which had a milton keynes code.

15 Jan 2005

Have a look at this:
http://www.swingingheaven.co.uk/advice/online-security.html

15 Jan 2005

just got me too. 275 quid for connecting to a place called tuvalu. bastards!!

15 Jan 2005

Quote by racer3
just got me too. 275 quid for connecting to a place called tuvalu. bastards!!

Owwwch!