MASSIVE BT Bill

The_Bride_3

Hey everyone,
Hope this is the right forum for this. Basically my parent's in law have a problem with their BT bill. Their dial-up was hijacked by a rogue company which charged them huge amounts every time they were online.
You can see where this is going?
Of course they now have a massive BT bill, around £900, which they can not pay. BT are refusing to negotiate on this and have cut their service.
I know this was in the news a little while ago but can not find any information on how to deal with this problem.
Do they have any options here aside from paying the bill?
Any and all advice welcome!
The Bride

:xmassign:

---lee---

You may be able to negotiate a repayment plan with BT and get the service restored.

I doubt that BT will write off the debt. They will say it’s your responsibility to ensure that nothing dodgy is using your phone line. When you say their dialup was hijacked, I assume you mean that they installed some software which has used the modem to dial premium rate phone lines.

Personally, I would like to see all premium rate services banned, but it will never happen as the phone companies make so much money out of them.

Hope it works out.

Rex_Mundi

Put in a complaint to ICSTIS . They are the regulator for premium numbers. When this happened to my neighbour, she put in a complaint and they made BT freeze the disputed part of the phone bill. She only paid for her normal calls. These people are really the only ones that can deal with these premium rate scams.

paul93anderson

I believe its possible to get BT to put a bar on the calling of premium rate numbers from your home telephone mumber.

I appreciate its a bit late for your inlaws, but I can't imagine many money savers dialing premium rate numbers of they own free will.

I think I mighht take my own advice and do just that.

PS - the worst telephone story I ever heard was about a disgruntled thief who dialed the speaking clock in Sydney because he was disappointed by the lack of rich pickings in the house he was burgling.

Browntoa

Bt's problem is that they only hold about 10 pence of the £1.50 a minute ( or whatever )
and also stand to make a loss as they are only the carrier, the premium rate number is sold by another company to which they have no ties

as Rex says, complain to icstis

withabix

The best cure for this problem is of course.....BROADBAND!

(or stop surfing !!!!!!!!)

Februarycat

This happened to me a year or so ago, I had to pay the bill in the end, was not as high as your parents. What I did was put a block on premium rate nos which is free with BT. I have now got broadband. I think the Watchdog site use to have some information on rogue diallers which I remember printing off. I hope you manage to get the bill reduced, good luck

ukbill69

I suggest trying broadband and you will not ever get them problems lol.

bamberbamboo

I have put a ban on premium numbers from my home phone and I also use Bt.com site to check calls/charges every day or so just to keep an eye on whats happening while I'm at work, teenagers at home!!

LittleJo

Hi,
I have an article from the one of the 'Sunday papers' about a similar case. The author took the view that BT were helping the rogue dialler by collecting their ill-gotten gains. This made them an accessory, also the money went abroad so money-laundering comes in to it.
If you are interested in further details of the article let me know and I will chase it up at work in the week.
Jo

bunking_off

LittleJo wrote:

Hi,
I have an article from the one of the 'Sunday papers' about a similar case. The author took the view that BT were helping the rogue dialler by collecting their ill-gotten gains. This made them an accessory, also the money went abroad so money-laundering comes in to it.

...to avoid accusations of libel (if there's such a thing against companies rather than individuals), I'd be tempted to add "allegedly, in the views of the author". The accusations of BT being an accessory have been made by an investigative journalist, and so far as I know not been tested in court. Believe his view is that if BT really believed it, they'd have sued him.

Incidentally, for quite some time (a year?) BT have offered - free of charge - software that will prevent diallers from making calls to ranges outside of 080/084. I have a lot of sympathy for the OP and their family, but - assuming the calls were made in the last year - I'm sure BT will argue that they provided the tools to stop this happening so couldn't do much more (they have a legal obligation to deliver calls to all UK numbers).