Diallers are software applications that are downloaded onto Web users' computers to allow access to pay-per-view sites, such as porn sites, but some are being installed without users' knowledge in order to run up large bills in connection with premium-rate telephone lines.
As reported last week, diallers are a growing menace to UK dial-up Web users. The percentage of Internet-related complaints about premium-rate services has risen from 43 percent in 2002 to 70 percent in 2003, as a proportion of customers making complaints about high telephone bills, according to the industry's regulator, the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS).
According to a BT spokesperson, the company's customer service investigation team will compile a database of premium rate numbers used by rogue dialling software. The BT Wholesale team will then be able to instruct the exchange to block the number for retail customers.
The move will only protect people who use BT as their telephone provider.
"Cable customers have a different network, and carrier pre-select operators will have to make their own decisions," said a BT spokesperson.
BT says it will give up any revenue generated from customers defrauded in this way, although the sums involved are small. The lion's share of the charges associated with such services go to the service operator rather than carriers such as BT. The company says that when a £100 bill is run up by a dialler, BT’s share is £1.85. The unfortunate victims of dialling scams will still have to try and recover the bulk of their lost funds from the service provider.
The company hopes its new approach will shut down corrupt services quickly, given the delays associated with trying to prosecute the people running corrupt premium rate lines, who are frequently based offshore, hard to locate, and very difficult to prosecute.
"We need to minimise the number of customers being affected as quickly as we can and we can't allow any more of our customers to fall victim while the sometimes-lengthy investigative process gets underway," said Gavin Patterson, BT's group managing director for Consumer and Ventures, in a statement.
The company is also offering a free premium-rate call block on all customer lines to prevent those who sign up from falling victim.
Talkback
I have been infected by a particular Dial-up spammer who is based in Germany.
I get the feeling BT are not interested they are raking in the money (£400) from me and another £600 approx from two other people I know.
Youdon't know you've been hit because your BT bill comes in quarterly it also cost me a new PC as my old PC just "Gave up"
ICSTIS are also useless I get the feeling it would be too much trouble for them to do anything about it. I live in Glasgow, I'm Scottish and do not speak German - how am I suppoosed to recover the cash from someone in Germany who is obviously breaking the law anyway? and will intentionally be elusive????? This is an Industry problem and in the interests of good Public Relations BT should refund the money to customers in full! and then shut this guy down for good......
I agree with mr cambel that bt should foot the bill as they are to big for their own good
and i too last year got caught with trogen horse dialer when i was on a dial up connection all bt told me was that your are very lucky that the bill was only £7 as some have been thousand of pounds run up
and as i was just geting rid of pop up adds this diler was slyly concealed under some historical sites and when you clicked to cancel the program it automaticaly sent you to porn sites that i did not ask to go to i am now using broadband with panda platinum 7
firewaled and dialer blocker adds blockers etc i have also used norton internet security
2003 and found that hackers were able to switch off the firewall and antivirus sftware
by disabling the start up files etc
i spent many hours formating my computer last year and this year i have had clean out sdbot
worm.aeb worm system32\sisms.exe
and all the others before i used Panda platium 7 and as i built this machine myself back in 1999 i can say although i am using a amd 450
chip i have learnt more since being hacked on
numerous ocations over the years
my computer has had lots of viruses and i have used reg seeker spybot and adware 6
and many good free viruse progams and trial
software off this site but my amd450 is not stoped all together just a denial of severice
to use my printer etc and i feel sory for the gentleman mentiontioned earlier whos machine does not work properly anymore
i suspect this is due to spyware progarms
not the dialers he needs to go to lavasoft or this website and download adware six spyboy and and microsoft to update his computer
This happened to me last October, BT were useless. I had premium rate numbers but also I had calls to someone called Emsat, apparently this is a ship to shore phone so BT told me. The amount was £68! I had to pay the bill although annoyed. I am still trying to find out who these guys are, but because of the so called data protection act I am unable to do this. From what I can see is the data protection act is only protecting the thieves. Also ICSTIS were unable to help because it is a International number and not a premium rate number. I don't suppose you have any advice do you?? I now have all calls blocked that are premium rate. My total bill was £137.00 and it is usually £30. Mind you BT were kind enough to send me a letter a few weeks before telling me my bill was £107 at that point. Its just a pity no one is prepared to find out who this person is!
Regards
Liz Newman
I don't agree with BTs appraisal:
I pay a BT bill, they forward the money on to the carriers. Credit card companies and paypal etc can reclaim money so someone as large as BT should have plenty of power in justifiably withholding and reclaiming charges where disputes exist. As a large business one can safely assume they don't pay their bills on time!
Have a look at BT's web site www.bt.com/premiumrates where they state " 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."
Jim, What is the name of the Scammer in Germany ?
I recieved a bill of 180£ from Mediasky 2001 based in germany
Hi Jim, you should contact someone on ICSTIS, they will help you to refund your money.
RE; PREMIUM RATE CALLS, I CONTACTED ICSTIS TO BE TOLD THE ADDRESS OF THE
DIALLER AND THAT I SHOULD CONTACT
THEM TO REIMBURSE ME FOR THE PHONE CALLS. I DON'T THINK FOR ONE MOMENT THAT SOME ANONYMOUS PERSON WILL RETURN THE MONEY THEY STOLE,AND WOULD YOU GIVE THEM YOUR PHONE NUMBER AND ADDRESS? I DIDN'T THINK SO.
SO I DON'T THINK ICSTIS IS ANY HELP WHAT
SO EVER.
It all started when I received a bill from British telecom asking me to pay for an Emsat call for £86 .when I called BT after asking me loads of stupid question they ask me to put my complaint to a different department.
Emsat is a satellite based in France. I was told that it was more than likely a computer generated call. I checked my computer and no dialler was found, it’s a premium number.
I told BT that there was no rogue dialler found on my computer, they investigated but go nowhere. I eventually asked them to produce a deadlock letter so that I would be able to go to Otello with the complaint. After months of going from department to department, I was eventually given the dead lock letter. In the meantime BT were intimidating me by cutting my line and saying that they were going to take me to court etc etc. Each department does not know what the other is doing. After receiving the dead lock letter I sent it to otello with a covering letter. Today I received otello reply saying that BT has done nothing wrong and BT cannot be faulted for the way it has handled the matter. The fact is that BT are making a fortune from these unscrupulous companies with premium numbers using Emsat so they cannot be traced according to BT. Hundreds of BT customers if not thousands have been through this problem but BT does not have the courtesy to let other BT customers know of the problem so that they can be aware and take the necessary precautions to avoid the problem.
On the Day I received my bill there was a programme on the radio with people complaining about the same problem and there was also a article in the newspaper about someone receiving a bill for £1200 for the same type of thing. Your comments on this would be highly appreciated , if you have been in the same situation, what did you do next., as now I have been asked to pay the amount outstanding as Bt are not apparently at fault. I did not realise at the time that Otello is paid for by Bt, how does that make the investigation independent. I have decided now to take it to the Daily Mirror Newspaper to see if any help can be achieved.
I would appreciate your experience sent to: fantastic.opportunity@ntlworld.com.
To be honest I found ICSTIS to be totally useless and of no help whatsoever. Admittedly, I'm going back a couple of years when I was still very green regarding the Internet. Let's just say I found myself on a website of a "questionable nature" ;o) but little did I know at the time that this site had placed a Direct Dialler onto my computer and I was actually being billed £1.00 per minute (as opposed to the 1p per minute I thought I was being charged). While still oblivious to this fact I visited the website on three consecutive nights. I received a letter from BT informing me that my current call charges were higher than usual at £120 and in a bid to stop any unauthorised usage they would restrict my service when they reached £140. BT however, did not do this, they allowed my bill to exceed £400 and when I asked them why they hadn't restricted my calls as they'd stated in their letter, they tried to wiggle out by saying they weren't obliged to do that. I contacted ICSTIS and sent them copies of the letter, relevant bills etc but as I said in the opening paragraph, they proved to be totally useless. The impression I got was that ICSTIS are definitely NOT independent, and from other stories I've heard since, they seem all too eager to side with BT and not the consumer.
Re the so called free Rogue Dialer software...where is it? Where do I download it? Or is it just another internet scam...Typical!!!
ANY HELP OR ADVICE GRATEFULLY RECEIVED: I have just been landed with a £1200 phone bill from BT due to a rogue dialler on my pc for the last quarter. No one at BT seems to be able to offer any constructive help and just pass you onto another department. I was referred to ICSTIS and told they would be able to help - unfortunately the number used by the rogue dialer is not an "09" number so they could do nothing. The number being used was 08710905413. Does anybody have any experience in this area and can anyone offer any guidance? Many thanks. John
dude norton sux ditch it i got rid of it and have had no virus problems since.... this will be the one time im going on here cuz i was looking up registry cleaner and it brought me this... get avast free home edition, sygate firewall or zone alarm or outpost or kerio, get microsoft anitspyware, spybot search and destroy, ad aware, Ewido (gets rid of many rootkits, trojans, spyware and more!) not very well known but very high ratings and i love it..., ccleaner, registry cleaner and you should be set... also get bit defender 8 free edition which has rapid updates like 2 a day minimum... seriously norton sux get avast!