Internet Phone Scam

System

>:( Here Here well said above 090 numbers should be banned in the uk full stop they are all money grabbing,scamming BA*****s >:(
My father received his phone bill from Kingston Communications today £698.34 he had th dreaded attatched internet dialler Kingston communications do offer to stop all premium rate numbers at a charge of £14.99. yup I know its a small price to pay for safety. BUT it would surely pay them to give this option FREE as in most cases like my fathers he cancelled his internet immediatly and now has a fear of ever using the internet again >:( so surely they will lose more money loosing customers. PLEASE MSE WE NEED YOUR HELP

wadewade

Apparently the latest scam is to send you a pre-recorded message which asks you to press 0 to get further details. Apparently if you do this you can somehow incur huge bills immediately after. Don't know how it works but I don't intend to find out!!

sweven

A friend has just been hit for £65 by a dialer he didn't know had installed itself. The number used was 09090272031. I haven't been able to find any info on Google about it - any ideas.

BT and ICSTIS are completely out of order in their attitude to this scam. If BT are provided with reasonable evidence that the dialer installed itself illegally then by charging the money to their customer and passing it on to the owner of the number then they are assitsting the fraud and are surely complicit in it.

This story gives a slightly different angle.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/24/bt_norfolk/

Petree

Don't see why it could be BTs fault?

Same as the people on watchdog who complained, if your child kept dialing this number on your house phone, could you blame bt? I doubt it, it's the same thing, a modem BT don't own, a computer BT don't own, a program BT don't own....infact the only bit BT do is to put through a call from your line to the one you requested.

BT are only doing whats expected, that is providing the service and making a profit, so the numbers are 090... but if you were so inclined to ring up the 'back of magazine' lines that are 090... would you be pleased with a BT operator ringing you up, asking did you really mean to phone a sex line?

You might say that once it got to £200 they should contact you, but if you went into the bakery for a cream cake every 10 minutes, would you want the counter person saying 'excuse me don't you think you have eaten enough already', they wouldn't as they are trying to make a living too.

It's an awlful thing to happen, but don't blame the people that aren't resonsible, get onto ICSTIT and they will freeze the part of the bill until it is sorted.

Also unplug your phone line when you aren't using the internet, switch your pc off, and you can look at your bill online at anytime (bt). also check your security settings, wack em up a notch or two, then when something such as this dialer comes up it will have a box saying Accept/No/More Info or words to that effect, read it through, if you don't want it click No, and keep doing so if it reappears.

Pink.

Thanks for all these posts.......Scary stuff.

We've had a few weird premium numbers on our last two phone bills, going to check them out now.

Thanks again

sweven

Thanks Petree -

Firstly, I said 'my friend' which makes it sound like me, but it's not. I'm on broadband and luckily immune from this particular scam.

I've looked back at my post and what I said is that 'if BT are provided with reasonable evidence that the dialer installed itself illegally' and then still insist in collecting the money and giving it to the owners of the number that's where they are acting wrongly - not in billing the customer in the first place.

Remember that according to the ICSTIS website, a dialer which installs itself without explaining the charges and giving the user the opportunity to reject it, is illegal. Therefore BT are in this instance charging my friend (and it's really not me!) money which, once it has been paid to the owner of the number, will have been gained by deception, illegally.

If BT take my friends money, and pay it to the owners of this line, having been given information about the illegal nature of the charges, then they are at fault. And remember, they are not simply transferring the payment from one party to the other, they are making a healthy profit out of it on the way.

I do believe that BT know this type of thing is going on, but don't seem to be making any effort to stop it.

Paul_Varjak

SWEVEN:

BT cannot refund money or block these numbers just because a customer (or customers) have provided them with evidence of a 'scam'.

Those that have a genuine grievance can report the matter to ICSTIS who will freeze that portion of the bill whilst an investigation is undertaken.


If your phone company is not at fault you will have to pay the bill. If ICSTIS decide it is a scam they will block the numbers but it will be up to you to seek a refund from those operating the scam. ICSTIS cannot help you do this.

If phone companies were made to repay all monies paid for telephone calls to these premium rate lines, these scam artists would take advantage of this and phone themselves on their own premium rate numbers, in the knowledge that they would get a refund!

sweven

Paul - putting the word scam in quotation marks would indicate that you don't think it exists, but the regulator is already making noises about banning these lines.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8214-1156914,00.html

If you suggest that the victims of this scam should seek refund from the people who have their money, then that would include BT who take roughly 6p for every minute.

Paul_Varjak

SWEVEN:

I do not dispute that such scams exist. In fact I confirmed the existence of such scams on the ICSTIS website before making my post.

As for seeking refunds, I was merely re-iterating what ICSTIS say on their website and what they have told me in personal correspondence.

I also re-iterate that BT can do nothing about blocking these numbers unless and until they are proven as scams by ICSTIS.

I have had personal involvement in two cases where fraudsters have conned Yellow Pages, BT and their customers and I probably feel more strongly about fraudsters than you.

I spent two years investigating these people, at great cost to myself both financially and personally but, In both cases, my personal involvement means that these scam artists no longer advertise in Yellow Pages and one was barred from company directorship for five years.

I sought no recompense for my financial losses either from the scam artists, BT or Yellow Pages, I simply saw it as my duty to stop others getting 'stung'. My satisfaction was in achieving that aim.

sweven

OK Paul - we're on the same side  :D

'nother story on the same subject here

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/28/mps_icstis/