Internet Dailler - huge phone bill! HELP

damianb_2

Hello,
We recently had 256K broadband installed, but before this we used a dial-up modem. We just had our monthly phone bill and it turns out there's £60 of calls we haven't made, some of them ranging from £10 to £15 each call, and have been connected for over an hour sometimes. It turns out we had a dialler trojan virus on the machine which was changing out connection number, BUT... what can we do about this? surely this isn't legal??? How can we get away without paying the money?

Thanks and hope someone can help.

Damian

Malestrom

To be honest, I think you're quite lucky to get away with only £60. I know people who have been caught by this for hundreds. Basically, you dialed the number, although unknowingly, so as far as your telecoms provider is concerned - tough luck. Also, these calls quite often dial to other countries, so there is no comeback there either. At least now that you have broadband it can't happen again. Sorry.

maneesh_2

Yeah you've been hit by that scam where people were charged loads, and bt wouldn't do anything about it.

Ours came upto £200 but they said she can just pay £100, but bt don't let it go free.

Yet after this happened my mum got i think the Sunday Times magazine or something, and it was about a person who fought back against bt.

It also gives you a letter on what to write to bt to not having to pay anything!

Cause bt breaks a number of laws when they take the money from you.

I remember one of the laws was that they were providing the criminals (the people who charge you) with money, which is basically illegal.

Anyway we don't have the magazine anymore but i reckon you can find out the letter somewhere, i just wish that had been released before we payed.

blocker_2

This can still happen with narrowband. There is a product on the market for dial up called a Modem Protector. It will prevent this in teh future.

BT had used a blocking service for teh last year but they were sued by a company that wants them disabled from blocking numbers. So now everone is going to be liable for the phone dialer scam again. the Modem Protector is a good product I have one.

Paul_Varjak

damianb wrote:

Hello,
We recently had 256K broadband installed, but before this we used a dial-up modem. We just had our monthly phone bill and it turns out there's £60 of calls we haven't made, some of them ranging from £10 to £15 each call, and have been connected for over an hour sometimes. It turns out we had a dialler trojan virus on the machine which was changing out connection number, BUT... what can we do about this? surely this isn't legal??? How can we get away without paying the money?

Thanks and hope someone can help.

Damian

If you had a rogue dialler installed I suspect it would only dial a premium rate number at £1.50p/min. You say that the calls vary from £10 to £15 per call but last over an hour!

That is 25p/min at most - so does not sound like a rogue dialler to me!

Debt_Free_Chick

You do now have the relevant security installed to prevent - or at least minimise the risk of - this happening again?