BT warns its customers about Porn Diallers

spongebob

They can cost a shocking 60 (€0.90c) a minute over there while they cost €3.60 a minute here ......... no warning pages anywhere as standard.

http://www.bt.com/premiumrates/

Also includes

Natty "Have I been stung"? feature .....free and bang up to date.

If you believe you might have initiated calls due to this internet dialler activity, you can check the current cost of your calls using our *Cost of Calls Since Last Bill service or call 0800 854 608 to access our Call My Bill service.

A specialist team who will HELP you to DISPUTE the bill and who will DEDUCT the disputed amount form your current bill and carry it over WHILE IT IS BEING INVESTIGATED . Eircom have a specialist TEAM who actually accuse you of BEING A PERVERT so they can get the MONEY STRAIGHT AWAY.

If you wish to dispute a particular premium rate call charge, please contact BT on 150 or 0800 800 150, (a free call from BT fixed lines), where your call will be handled by our specialist team. In the event that we believe that the charge is a result of an errant internet dialler, we will ask you to pay your BT bill, minus the disputed amount.

Jeez, what a fabulous regulator we have here .

M

eth0_

BT cuts off dialler scammers
By John Oates
Published Wednesday 30th June 2004 15:04 GMT
BT is taking action against rogue dialler companies which defraud consumers by secretly changing their computer settings so they call a premium rate phone line instead of their usual ISP number.

Diallers are used by websites selling expensive content - usually pornographic. To access the site, browsers must first install software which changes computer settings so the website is accesssed via a premium rate phone line. This isn't a problem - so long as the software properly tells the consumer what is going on But many diallers give no warnings and users can quickly run up huge phone bills. An estimated 19,000 BT customers have been stung by rogue diallers, and the problem is growing.

BT will block access to any premium number it believes is being used by "rogue dial-ups". It will do this straight away, rather than wait for regulators to take action.

Independent Committee for the Supervision of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS), the regulater of premium rate services, is supporting BT's action. Rogue diallers represented 43 per cent of Internet-related premium rate complaints received by ICSTIS in 2002; by 2003 this had risen to 70 per cent.

BT will also offer subscribers a free block on calling premium lines. A removable block on your line will cost £1.75 a month.

The telco said it would not make any money out of rogue dialling software. Although the bulk of charges go to the service provider, BT will donate its percentage of charges to the charity ChildLine.

BT will also do more to warn customers about the problem. ®

shinzon

almost makes me want to move to England

Were just a laughing stock over here

Shin

BrianD

Bet you won't get your money back if the call terminates in Band 13! The article is not clear but it seems to be referring to premium rate numbers based within the UK - you can't make a complaint to ICSTIS if the provider is not UK based.

sceptre

Originally posted by BrianD
Bet you won't get your money back if the call terminates in Band 13! The article is not clear but it seems to be referring to premium rate numbers based within the UK - you can't make a complaint to ICSTIS if the provider is not UK based.

Oh quite possibly not (BT don't have a Band 13 either but that's beside the point)

That "set your estimated spend per quarter, tell us about it and we'll block your calls for free if you go over that amount if you want so you won't get screwed until you phone us and we'll tell you where you've been calling so far" service is pretty good though. Meanwhile BT don't guarantee you'll get your money back even on domestic diallers, they're just facilitating you so you can dispute it with the bad people who profit from it (rather than "implying you're a pervert" as Muck eloquently put it). And they said they're not in the business of making money out of diallers (or people's stupidity if you run with that view, other thread still open) so that's a progressive step forward assuming they actually mean it.

BigEejit

As has been pointed out previously:

ActiveX controls can change the settings without your consent or knowledge. It would most likely happen on a pr0n website but there have been reports of innocuous websites doing it.
It would not catch out a security concious person, but what about granny who types in www.yhaoo.com (this one goes to yahoo.com, I'm just making an example) and gets one without her knowledge. There are ones that dial out after periods of computer inactivity (also mute modem sounds) ....

It all adds up to Comreg = useless .... they should give €ircon a good proper kick in the hole and sort the whole mess out.

The question that needs answering: Do Comreg have the powers to force €ircon to allow customers to install call blocking to band 13 countries (or install it by default for all customers).? If not, WTF are Comreg going to do to protect the consumer.?

spongebob

Originally posted by BigEejit
As has been pointed out previously:

ActiveX controls can change the settings without your consent or knowledge. It would most likely happen on a pr0n website but there have been reports of innocuous websites doing it. It would not catch out a security concious person,

It could. It would not catch the paranoid and highly technically literate though.....about 1% of all internet users on Dial Up in Ireland I should think. You can catch one with the latest IE and all Critical Fixes installed by Automatic Update.

The question that needs answering: Do Comreg have the powers to force €ircon to allow customers to install call blocking to band 13 countries (or install it by default for all customers).? If not, WTF are Comreg going to do to protect the consumer.?

That is THE QUESTION . They ahave all the powers under the USO mechanism in the control of costs section but the tossers would rather ask Eircom for a report on the issue (which will take them 6 months to read even if it is complete and truthful in th first place) than to DO something about it.

They only produced their wishy washy leaflet 18 months after Band 13 was created and in response to a Ministerial Enquiry.

M