Icstis lied about rogue dialler fraud

the_optimist

I had that problem. On my telephone bill was a bill for about £23 (can't remember the exact amount) for apparently phonecalls to Spain, which we knew we didn't do. It was one of those downloads by Amara Amichi (we didn't enter any dodgy websites either). I contacted Ictis who gave me the address of Amara Amichi. Amara Amichi replied that they would re-inburse me if I send them copies of: birth certificate, passport, BANK STATEMENTS(!!!!!!! ) plus loads more which I can't remember. Needless to say that I refused to send them all this info. Instead I wrote to Ictis but never had another reply.

Fraudanalyst

bunking_off wrote:

I would by no means suggest that everyone who was a victim of such fraud picked up the rogue software from ropey sites. However, it is generally accepted wisdom in the industry that the majority of such diallers weren't exactly downloaded from the BBC website or moneysavingexpert.com

A danish businessman, a partner of the "Mallorca connection", was brought to court in Germany for swindling millions with rogue diallers. It's the same danish businessman who was mentioned in the BBC

He was sentenced (on parole) without a hearing in what I call a very bad deal.

The prosecuting attorney said that Mr P* had not made much profit (although his fine was only half of the swindled money) and he calculated, that millions have been spent for getting his advertisements on the websites of freenet and AOL. Mr P* was one of the directors of PMC and his partner director, Mr Enrique D*, started a big cooperation with AOL UK to promote his Bingos site. [edit: There is no legal obligation for AOL to think about their partners, but possibly a moral obligation.]

So the banners that tricked the German people into the dialler trap have been placed on "ropey sites"? No. Unless you call AOL "ropey", "dodgy" or whatever.

And another company of Mr P*, "Comet Media ltd" had banners for a desktop/wallpaper site with an unfair dialler on a "security topics" site of Germany's biggest internet provider. Again: If one is talking about dodgy sites or "dark alleys" he may not be talking about the sites of German providers...

And Mr P* himself did not walk along dark alleys, but he could be seen on (and in) the footlights of big European Internet Fairs. He was a partner to the UK industry, he was the director of an UK Telco - and so on.

It may be "common believe" that those companies come from somewhere abroad and that those people are hiding in the dark - but it is (in a lot of cases) wrong. In the case here the people stood in the middle of the business and have been long known members of the industry. And if you take a look at the ICSTIS database of adjudications you can easily find other examples.

That rises questions that should be answered: The (people behind the) companies here have been known for using unfair or rogue diallers for years with a history of ICSTIS adjudications beginning in 2002. In the BBC program Mr Kidd from ICSTIS negated any wrongdoing by ICSTIS and said that his staff could not know about the backgrounds of the comapnies. Obviously the public, the media and the House did believe - I don't.

I would love to see the cases here investigated by the UK police although I don't think that it would answer all the questions. I share the opinion of wantmemoney because I have sufficient insight into his investigations and I would love to see this investigations scrutinised by the NHTCU. So I want to encourage every single victim: Get in touch with your MP. I think that there is enough reason to start a criminal investigation. And (this is to the danes) I would support it wherever I can.

kind regards & best wishes from Germany
Fraudanalyst
DS-member