Discussion
I went to see a mate this evening and while I was there he had a phone call from BT saying his line had been used to access a 'premium rate number'to the extent that it cost over £100 in the last week. Now he's just got a new pc his first and isnt computer literate at all and it appears he went on some pervy site that downloaded a new dialer which shut down his aol connection and redialed a £1.50 a minute one !! It had an icon on his desktop marked 'XX' (now removed) which quoted a UK PO box address and quoted the £1.50 a min rate but it seems bloody sneeky ! Anyone ever come accross this before and is it legal ?? And honest it really isnt me !! honest !! swear on my
cats life it isnt !!
cats life it isnt !!
Happened to a mates friends mums sisters aunties bosses brother. (ok, i dont know who, i forgot)
But did a similar thing (16 year old) on a family comp while his parents were away, not only was it so much per minuite, he didnt realise, and presumed it was free as usual, so left if constantly on, cost over £600.
He had to pay it back, probably still is. Wether his poarents had to pay bt or not, i do not know.
But did a similar thing (16 year old) on a family comp while his parents were away, not only was it so much per minuite, he didnt realise, and presumed it was free as usual, so left if constantly on, cost over £600.
He had to pay it back, probably still is. Wether his poarents had to pay bt or not, i do not know.
It probably wouldn't be legal if they were based in the UK as it sounds like they didn't give him the usual warnings about "Calls to this number cost Xpence a minute", prior to the dialer downloading automatically, irrespective of whether it appears on his desktop or not.
However, you can be fairly certain that they will certainly not be registered in the UK, if they are registered at all, and the number you are dialling is probably in Tuvalu or Vanuatu.
This sort of thing usually can't happen if you have a broadband connection, but you have to be very careful if you "accidentally" access this sort of stuff with a dial-up connection
>> Edited by Nevin on Thursday 27th February 01:12
However, you can be fairly certain that they will certainly not be registered in the UK, if they are registered at all, and the number you are dialling is probably in Tuvalu or Vanuatu.
This sort of thing usually can't happen if you have a broadband connection, but you have to be very careful if you "accidentally" access this sort of stuff with a dial-up connection
>> Edited by Nevin on Thursday 27th February 01:12
Well I assume its legal as it is a relatively well known trick adopted by somme of these sites. At least BT are alert to it, and made the call.
However my account is with AOL and I thought that this sort of dialer did not work with them, unless you closed down AOL, and clicked the icon. I thought AOLs software stopped this sort of thing, however reserve the right to be wrong!
However my account is with AOL and I thought that this sort of dialer did not work with them, unless you closed down AOL, and clicked the icon. I thought AOLs software stopped this sort of thing, however reserve the right to be wrong!
summs said:
s2n said: Yup, it's completly legal.
I work in this industry.
Do you work in the computer industry, or the pervy porn site industry. Just wondered, as may be you could help the original complainant lose his bill.......
I basically sell the equipment that makes the pervy porn sites work, the only person who could make the bill disapear would be a BT employee or whoever he uses for his call charges.
s2n said:
summs said:
s2n said: Yup, it's completly legal.
I work in this industry.
Do you work in the computer industry, or the pervy porn site industry. Just wondered, as may be you could help the original complainant lose his bill.......
I basically sell the equipment that makes the pervy porn sites work, the only person who could make the bill disapear would be a BT employee or whoever he uses for his call charges.
I take it you mean diallers....tehnical bumpf etc. Not the girls, lingerie, sex toys and stuff that make the sites interesting....
A bit off subject here, but I had a friend staying at my house for a week a few years ago. I trundle off to work each day and he went job hunting each day! Well that’s what he told me he was doing. Any way half way through the week BT called me to say that my phone bill was sky high and premium lines had been called from it. It turns out my good friend had not been looking for work, but in fact had been to55ing off every day and afternoon while talking to some old bag who was pretending to be a stunner. The tw@t didn’t even pay up. W@nker
These bloody downloads are a nightmare 
The thing is they generally ask if you want to download the file & people who aren't very clued up will often just click ok/save (largely thanks to legit' software that give a mass of windows that just need ok'd to make them go away with the end result people don't read them anymore)
If I had a quid for the number of PC's I've had to clear this cak off....
The thing is they generally ask if you want to download the file & people who aren't very clued up will often just click ok/save (largely thanks to legit' software that give a mass of windows that just need ok'd to make them go away with the end result people don't read them anymore)
If I had a quid for the number of PC's I've had to clear this cak off....
robp said: Can the PC switch to a premium rate without warning you? You have got me worried now!
Oh yes, there are plenty of dodgy people doing it, usually from little islands in the pacific, however as I think I mentioned on another thread, I once got a dialler installed on my computer (I'm on broadband so it didn't affect me) I complained to the ICSTIS and they slapped a £5000 fine on the company (who were UK based).
Not all of them are auto installed though, sometimes you will get a free gallery and when you click on the thumnail it asks you to install some "image viewing software" and when you go to install it and get the big long T's and C's (that no one reads) it will have in the middle that you have to pay £5/min or something.
Pretty legal then.
>> Edited by rpguk on Thursday 27th February 13:47
Thanks for your comments guys .. I was rather shocked at how easy it had been for it to happen.. then amused cos it wasnt me .. actually thinking back I was much more amused than shocked 
I think he's going to put the whole thing down to experience rather than risk further embarrasment ringing another BT woman though im inclined to give that ICSTIS thing a go cos we did make a note of the premium rate number before deleting it and it does say it anonymous.. snigger snigger..
I think he's going to put the whole thing down to experience rather than risk further embarrasment ringing another BT woman though im inclined to give that ICSTIS thing a go cos we did make a note of the premium rate number before deleting it and it does say it anonymous.. snigger snigger..Gassing Station | General Gassing [Archive] | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff