Bloody Kids!

lynzpower

My sympathies for you toto.

this puts me in mind when my dad found premium rate numbers on our phone bill, they were in the daytime, he accused me of wagging school & calling sex lines. he went spare, I was grounded and had to stay in myroom until I *admitted* who we were phoning. this went on for some weeks.

Amazingly the number came up on the next phone bill, cue shouting argy bargy and more tears. Mother had us all sat round then "for proof" and she phoned the number. It was the "snowline" telling what the snow cover is like world wide. Culprit- dad.

hahahahaahaha he looked like a right idiot. I still remind him of that every now and again Must be about 14 years ago.

Hope this cheers you up a little toto, at least you are not jumping to the wrong conclusions and looking like a muppet In any case, if they get say a pound for cleaning the car, then make them do the car & put the cash in a jar. You can only do it for so long obviously without the whole thing crashing down.

BT block premuim rate numbers, you just need to call & ask.

Isnt there some kind of issue with a kids internet thing being on a premium rate number? Id speak to Ofcom and ask them about it.




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Molanole

One of the things my mum did when my little sister kept ringing up massive phone bills is call BT and ask them for call barring. It means that if you want to use the phone you have to enter a pin code to unlock the phone and then you can lock it again after you've finished. I think emergency calls could still get through though.

The only problem with this is that it blocked all internet calls when we were on dial up. I don't know what happens with broadband.

I suggest that for payment you call your telephone company and explain. They might let you spread the cost of the payments over a period of months?

Toto

Thanks everyone. I just called NTL, I have arranged a payment plan but they said they can't guarantee my service, so I could still be cut off! Great, not much point in a payment plan then.

I have barred all premium rate numbers, international calls etc.

I am seriously tempted to put their computer on ebay. I will pin the bill to the notice board and make them do a chore to tick off one call. That should take them a good few months to work it off.

They will be grounded, they will have computer access stopped (thanks for the tip of just removing the leads) they will have to work off every penny. There will be no treats of any kind. They can't use the excuse they didnt know, I have drummed it in to them time and time again how expensive these calls are. They aren't babies either 15 and 10 (youngest is exempt, she is handicapped and can't use the phone).

My mother would have gone nuts, I would still be suffering the pain now. If it weren't for the business I would just disconnect the phone completely.

Thanks for cheering me up though, some of your stories made me smile!

MrsTinks

If you worry they might log on to the web then you can always install Parental Controls A lot of AV software have it built in

Ebay their stuff! Seriously! If that was me then I would sit them down and explain that they have X days to repay the money before the pc goes under the hammer - and how would they propose to earn that money to repay you? Unless they learn the hard way then I doubt they'll learn

briona

Are you sure it's your kids making the calls? Two years ago [?] there were a number of stories involving seemingly phantom phone calls to premium rate numbers... Initially the families involved blamed their kids, though it was unlikely anyone's seven year old would be making premium rate calls at four in the morning! Check the links below... From those pages there are further links as well which might be worth looking at [in work at the mo so can't check myself!]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/31/telewest_icstis/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/02/bt_west_wickham/

Over and out...

Briona

Joe_Bloggs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habbo_Hotel
This game/forum is very big aroung the world. It appears you have to use real money to pay for virtual furniture in a room in a virtual hotel complex. A phone call to a premium number can buy credit in the game. It looks like an addictive money spinner to those in charge of the game.
J_B.

ms_london

Poor you!! Sorry to hear that!!

Our parents put a pay phone in the house (cant remember at what age!!), but I am serious, and it seemed to eat more money than the public phone boxes!! People laugh when I tell them about it, but it must have worked (until we found the key and started pinching money from it! Oooops!!).

We used to get grounded and our tv/video/stereo/computer (or whatever was popular at the time) would be taken off us or more often than not have the plug cut off :eek: !!

Makes me laugh now :rotfl: !!

Toto

My God, they even have casinos! I find it incredible that kids are being encouraged to gamble. I knew the kids were in habbo, all of their friends are. I had a look around and it seemed harmless. I certainly didn't realise they had to pay for things. My research today has shocked me and it has drummed it further home how careful we need to be with kids on the internet. I feel very irresponsible for not researching this properly in the beginning. I think this site is dangerous, teaching kids to gamble in casinos as well as the whole chat room thing.

My kids have gone to great lengths to avoid letting me know what this site is really about. Most of my calls on the phone bill are between 5 and 6 am. There's addiction for you, they were setting alarms to wake them up before I got up.

Decision made, computer will be sold. I don't care if I seem hard on them. I will not have my kids learning to gamble or being addicted to a chat room.

Thank you very much Joe for that page, it has opened my eyes. I now feel this £236 phone bill is the least that could have happened, it could have been much worse.

kathfisch

Toto wrote:

My God, they even have casinos! I find it incredible that kids are being encouraged to gamble. I knew the kids were in habbo, all of their friends are. I had a look around and it seemed harmless. I certainly didn't realise they had to pay for things. My research today has shocked me and it has drummed it further home how careful we need to be with kids on the internet. I feel very irresponsible for not researching this properly in the beginning. I think this site is dangerous, teaching kids to gamble in casinos as well as the whole chat room thing.

My kids have gone to great lengths to avoid letting me know what this site is really about. Most of my calls on the phone bill are between 5 and 6 am. There's addiction for you, they were setting alarms to wake them up before I got up.

Decision made, computer will be sold. I don't care if I seem hard on them. I will not have my kids learning to gamble or being addicted to a chat room.

Thank you very much Joe for that page, it has opened my eyes. I now feel this £236 phone bill is the least that could have happened, it could have been much worse.

Toto, don't be too hard on yourself! You've found out now and are doing something about it, that's the important thing. It certainly sounds and though they are trying to keep it from you and if they're doing that they must realise that its not something you'd approve of. Did they think you wouldn't notice a huge phone bill :rolleyes: do you think, or did they perhaps genuinely not realise what it cost?! Either way - you are right to want to make them see the consequences.

Is the computer quite valuable? I'd still make them do chores etc to pay back the bill, even if the computer will cover some of it.

Good luck when you talk to them about it, let us know how you get on x

Toto

The computer being sold is a punishment for keeping this whole thing from me. As you say kath, they knew it was wrong otherwise they wouldn't be getting up at 5 am to make the calls. They will do the chores to pay off the bill as well. I intend to come down on them like a ton of bricks.

And yes,it goes to show how dumb kids can be, they go to all the trouble of getting up at the crack of dawn, but they don't think I might just spot 200 premium rate calls on my bill LOL