[Peter_Blackburn]

Hi all,

I hope someone can help me on this one......

My normal quarterly BT phone bill usually equates to around the £120 mark per quarter so you can imagine how I felt tonight after a hard days C/C to receiving a bill for £820!!!!!!!!! , I almost choked to death on beans on toast.

On studying the bill in more detail £734 has accured on the section of the bill named 'Premium Rate' and the calls have spanned from the 16th Aug through to the 22nd Aug (one week of solid calls) and all the numbers start 09099 followed by differing selection of last numbers.

What is confusing is all the calls were made when nobody was home and the duration of the calls is in a regular pattern of 13mins and 50 mins, which was clocking up costs of £75 per call !!!.

The thing that is of great concern to me is that around the August period whist browsing the Internet I was confronted with the usual annoying pop up for a Casino or something, on trying to close the pop up I must have pressed the wrong part of the box which in turn opened up there site, once on the site the pop ups were coming so quick and regular within a few seconds the task bar at the bottom of the screen was full and as I was closing them more and more were appearing to the point where the computer was swamped.

The only thing I could think to do at the time was switch off the computer. On rebooting the computer and attempting to hook up to the net I was baffled to find out the number in the dial-up connection box had changed from the regular freserve number to one I have never seen before and there was also no dial up tone that you normally get.

When I connect onto Internet I get a red flashing light on my phone which sits next to the computer and lets you know the line is connected, during the period in question I would often come home to find the red light flashing even when the computer was not switched on and would switch off after a period of time, scary!!.

Does anyone know what has happened to me and more importantly will I have to pay this absurd bill.

Regards
Peter

[martin19842]

there has been an issue in the south , where a new type of program has been downloaded onto people pcs through pop ups etc,

where the program will turn off the pc's speakers, and then dials out.

if your pc, has a soft power down, there is the possibility that the pc has hibernated then started up again and connected.

i would speak to bt and the ombudsman to see what can be done.

in another case a gang were hacking the systems and then running up the bills.

hope  that helps

regards

martin

[John_Flynn]

Your calling my Consumer Information line!!!

Much better money spinner than Carpet Cleaning : :

[jacko]

The same has happened to me to the tune of £35 all 09099 or 09066 numbers. I found a dialer in my registry - came from a pop up i believe.

[paulchambers]

I had my phone ring at 2 am a few times i phoned bt how told me its calls from abroad trying to get into peoples pc's where spyware and adware(popups) have got into pc and then it dails a preminium rate i was told to buy a program to stop spy and adware i havnt done this and i get popups all  the time which i shut done straight away.

thinking about it not sure if my pc  can ring out,  as i got a router and ethernet card not not a dail up modem

[Peter_Blackburn]

Thanks for the feedback guys,

Its frightening to think that by accidentally opening a pop up it could potentially cost you thousands of pounds, Im quite lookey because I had windows 2000 installed about a week after the problems, so all applications were reinstalled along with the new Internet connection, I have predicted the bill would have been in the region of £6400 if I did nothing.


Jacko

Did you have to pay the £35?.

Pete

[Peter_Blackburn]

Sound like Im not alone this was taken from the net....


The numbers racket costing you a fortune

It is popping up everywhere - a major scam that makes your PC dial into costly premium rate phone lines. With consumer losses estimated at up to £10m a year Rupert Jones reports after having to fallen prey to this latest rip-off himself

Saturday July 3, 2004
The Guardian

Thousands of internet users are being ripped off to the tune of millions of pounds after falling victim to the latest scam to hit the web. It involves "secret" software that worms its way into people's computers and makes your PC dial up expensive premium rate numbers without your knowledge.
This new hi-tech con trick has snowballed alarmingly in recent weeks. It's something people only become aware of when they receive their bills -and discover to their horror they have racked up huge costs they were not aware of and didn't agree to.

The scam involves a crafty piece of software which surreptitiously replaces your usual internet connection with one that dials a premium rate number typically charging £1.50 a minute. Some people have been hit with bills for more than £1,000.

Britain's premium rate watchdog, Icstis, is deeply concerned and admits it has been "overwhelmed" by the scale of the problem. This week MPs called for urgent action from the industry and government to stamp it out, while BT announced some positive steps to combat the problem.

Here, Jobs & Money reveals how the scam works, the steps you can take to avoid being had, and what the companies and authorities are doing to tackle so-called rogue diallers.

Unfortunately, much of this wisdom has been acquired as a result of having to spend the past few days trying to sort out my own mess. I'm one of those who has been hit, and from my inquiries it sounds like there are a lot of us about.

More info at - http://money.guardian.co.uk/scamsandfraud/story/0,13802,1252835,00.html

[stevegunn]

Downloads available to stop this available from http://www.download.com/

[Fox]

Another way to stop this is to call BT and ban all 09 numbers from being dialed out on your line.

[John_McGavin]

Sorry Peter, but I think you will need to pay the bill mate

A friend of mine had a similar problem, not with his pc but his sky digibox. There was a software problem in his box which caused it to dial up to verify the time every hour. result - HUGE BILL!

He ended up having to pay the bill then take it up with Sky, but unfortunately as its your computer theres not really anything you can do about it. No-one to blame so to speak.

Hope Im wrong.. Good luck

John

[jacko]

Hi Peter

I have already paid it as i pay by Direct Debit. I have recently moved to wannado broadband and hope this will stop the issue. When not using pc i disconnect. When i am connected any "dialling" should be obvious.

I cannot see me getting my £35 back even if i tried!

I hope you can get yours back mate.

[paulchambers]

Can anyone tell me if my ethernet card is able to dail out

[gwrightson]

peter , sorry about your unfortunate hacking into your computer, a big problem at the moment .
onlyyesterday i was talking to some body who recieved
a bill for £800 and odd   .
he got intouch with local phone comp, which is kingston communications in our area (a law unto themselves,they have us by the short and curlys in every aspect of communications) and apparently large number of consumers in his area same problem all large bills .
not a thing they can do they told him. Has to pay,although he is refusing, so no idea what outcome will be .
having said all this  a good precaution i find ,is to constantly monitor your dial up number when on computer, click on to dial up connection, click properties
. this will display the number you are currently connected too , hope it helps in future
geoff

[Jamie Wiles]

Paul, an ethernet card is completely different from a modem card and does not contain hardware required to make a telephone call, unless it is some sort of combination modem/ethernet card in which case it will have two sockets on the back, one for the RJ45 category 5 network cable and one for a telephone line.

The absolute best piece of software that I have used for getting rid of adware and spyware is Lavasoft Ad-Aware. You can download the personal version free from http://www.lavasoft.de. In my opinion, everyone should have a copy....

[eclipse]

can this still happen with adsl broadband i ask this because there have been a few nights when i have been in bed and the upstairs phone peeps !!

[John_Flynn]

Very Serious with this reply

A few years ago I was told to ring a 09000 number regarding a loan, this was a scam as I was put on hold for long periods whilst checks were been done, I became suspisous and hung up, the following day I received a call from my telecom supplier NTL asking if I knew I had made a £26.00 call the previous day, I replied I suspected so. I had to pay.

I got the number from NTL that I had rung, then rang Oftel and reported the matter, this was followed up by Oftel, the persons concerned ended up  with a very hefty fine.

I now NEVER call a 09000 number (although some days I get the urge to speak with BUSTY MAGGIE!!)

These dialers cannot call out on Broadband.

The dialers only get onto your PC when you allow them to by been inquizitive about what they are offering!!

Beware Big Brother is watching.

[Dennis]

Now some BT customers are saying that unless the company gets tough with the rogue premium-rate operators they may take it to court for failing to protect them from the scams. Barry Borman, a solicitor from North London, says: ";I think that, by doing nothing about a phone scam of which it is aware, BT is failing to exercise a proper duty of care towards its customers. If there are enough of us we could mount a court action against the company.";

Martin Cross, a partner with Thomas Eggar, a firm of South East solicitors, says: ";It may well be time for the law to consider a duty of care to the users of telephone highways.";

A spokesman for BT says: ";We receive 6p per minute for each premium-rate call carried over our network. There is now an element of arguably criminal activity relating to rogue diallers taking place, but this is not within BT's power to cure without formal orders from Icstis or another regulatory body. With most overseas premium-rate numbers we do not even know who the operators are.

From:
http://www.business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9076-1133244,00.html

[Dusty]

You’re not alone this is a common problem being discussed here…

http://forums.techguy.org/showthread.php?t=224491&page=1&pp=15

Cut and paste your original post from the top of page here…

http://forums.techguy.org/f54-s.html

…and they will check your system for any dodgy programmes you may have running in the background.

Also you will be able to download FREE spyware removal tools (ad-aware, Spybot search & destroy) with confidence as the experts there will tell you exactly how to configure the said software correctly and then check that your system is clean with a little programme called “highjackthis”.

You can also ring your telephone company and have a premium rate number ban placed on your line.

[paulchambers]

Another scam to watch out for is the phone rings and you get a recorded messege saying you have won a prize and to press 9 when you press 9 your phone automatically rings the 0900 number. The cost is yours.   paul

[Martin Sambrook]

A tip for people with broadband connections. Remove your dial up modem from your pc (not needed if you have an ADSL modem) then goto your internet settings and under 'connections' enable 'Never dial a connection'.

Also in the connections box you will see the connection that you use, any others could have been put there by hackers or other downloaded programs so just remove them as you dont want them there.

And make sure you have a firewall, antivirus and pop up controls. Then do as i do and regularly check your internet connection for any abnormalities.

Hope this helps