Have you been a victim of the internet premium rate dial-up fraud?

Freddie_Snowbits

Look all of you stop bickering, it is our fault that these things still come and haunt us! Right, that is me off my high horse.



Let's look at tonight’s weather, cold, chance of snow. Are you going to go out down the local in your tee shirt. No, I thought not. Then why do you have unprotected sex. Oooooops sorry, Why is your computer like an open invitation to the scam masters.



If your down the local tonight and met a nice lassie (Sorry Girls) and wanted more, you would pay for protection wouldn't you?



Then get yourself a decent firewall and antivirus. Get you email provider to offer spam protection. Use disposable email accounts. Never give out details to unknown parties, that is why I always register as Freddie, at another address. I feel sorry if they mail to it though, but I never get it. Oh, and when they ask for a phone number, they get 01432 1999999 every time. Mobile number. Why do you want my mobile number, unless you're rich and famous and wanna show me the length shot.



Yes I still get scams, cannot remember how much I have won on the lottery, but email the buggers back, say how much you would like to do business with them. They waste your time, now waste thiers. If they want my bank details I give them it! In fact I give them it about thirty times, all false so they cannot see the wood from the trees. Barclays it was this week and I must have set them details every log on! I would not recommend that action for most of you though.



If you want to be safe, then as a minimum you must watch you guard. Please feel free to pass on your credit card details by personal message and I will soon rack up your account.



Want to see something fro free. Well it is not free. It may not cost anything, but a lot of game sites now have diallers that you have to down load.



If you want to be virtually secure (Note, no one can ever guarantee total security)you will have to purchase the following: -



Recommended Norton Internet Security 2006 (I have used this since 1998 (NAV 4) as a firewall, Anti Virus and Spam Filter



Never click on a link in an unknown email



Never download a dialler, OK some have got rather clever, they ooze themselves over the fact that the PC user is gullible! Right, to deal with these unnecessary nerds, you will need to set accounts on your PC! Administrator for you and user for the rest. This will deter the download and installation of programmes.



Now if you do not need a dialler because you are on broadband, then do the honest thing, disable the modem and disconnect. No, why not go the whole hog with the modem and take it out of the PC.

Quasar

Hmmmm interesting thread. I also can see both sides of the argument. As jake_bullet says, we do have some responsibility to learn how to use our computer. In fact I have only just found out by reading the above posts that diallers have nothing to do with broadband. Happily I have broadband. And I have all the latest Norton wizardry installed. So that's me sorted for now.

However the powers that be ought to clamp down on these rogue sites. After all, the example of the intruder switching all the lights on and leaving you with a massive electricity bill, which you then have to pay because it is not the supplier's fault, must also take into account that the law would punish such intruder.

As it stands now, the law does not seem to be interested in (let alone punish) those scammers who instal diallers by gross deception. Apologies if I got this wrong.

spankymonkey_2

can i just add , i am on dial up when this dialer was put on my machine i had adaware, spybot, firewall etc. this dialer was put on my machine when i closed a pop up! nothing came on screen to say i was going to dial an 090 number or a warning etc, it dialed when i was out and the pc was turned off.i am on ntl and i think that they are responsible because they knew that this scam was going on as they had already been warned by ictis. as far as i am aware ictis do contact phone providers with lists of these rogues numbers. i now have an 090 number ban on my phone but i have to pay for this and as far as i am aware this is not 100% foolproof.

Anthillmob

can i just say you dont have to click on anything to have one of these things instal itself. years ago when we were on dialup we used to get all sorts f this installing themselves onto our hardrive just from a pop-up window. click the x button and it somehow triggered a download.

becky004

I have broadband with AOL, there was 2 premium rate calls for rogue dial up once when we were in bed at 5am and once when we were on holiday for the weekend!. Cost me £55 so it doesnt matter if you have dial up or broadband

Anthillmob

but how can it dial up if youre on broadband, unless you also have a backup modem plugged in?

becky004

I have no idea how it did it but it did had my bill last week.

Browntoa

it cannot dial up if the PC is not on

becky004

Well according to the Post Office (my supplier) the calls were made from my phone line even though we were 150 miles away at the time! My PC is always plugged in but not always switched on

Browntoa

its' technically not possible for a PC to turn itself on and dial a number unless the Pc is left in Standby mode

you are sure it is a premium rate dialler for the internet and not just a premium rate number