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Date Posted: 10:16:23 07/05/04 Mon
Author: Ian Mackenzie
Subject: Taking action against scam

Taking action against scam
A Dundee woman has warned fellow Internet users to be vigilant, after
becoming one of the latest people to fall victim to a scam which tricks home
computers into dialling premium-rate lines (writes Graeme Strachan).
The web scam has affected thousands of Internet users in the UK.
The issue has led to BT announcing positive steps to help tackle the
problem of Internet dialler confusion, offering a free premium rate call
block on all customer lines to prevent others falling victim.

The woman, who did not wish to be named, activated the virus by
closing an unwanted "pop up" on her screen as she surfed the web.

Instead of shutting down, a programme was initiated by her mouse
click, changing the usual logon settings to divert the Internet connection
into a premium-rate line. Instead of being charged the usual dial-up rate,
users are charged at premium rate for the cost of their call.

"I won't know until our next bill how much this has cost us," the
woman said. "The dial-up number doesn't change, so people might not realise
they've been affected by the virus until they get a large phone bill through
the door, by which time it's too late. I would imagine thousands of people
are affected by it."

BT have taken action to ensure the woman will not be out of pocket in
future, blocking premium rate numbers from her phone line.

The Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of
Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS) has said it's received more than
10,000 complaints about rogue callers.

It estimates UK customers have already lost as much as £10 million.

BT has said it will block calls to premium rate numbers allegedly
associated with rogue diallers for all its customers, and will forego its
share of the money generated by these expensive calls.

The company is also offering a free premium rate call block on all
customer lines to prevent others falling victim.

Gavin Patterson, BT group managing director, Consumer and Ventures,
said, "We have decided to act on this issue, which is causing genuine
concern to us and thousands of our customers.

"When a premium-rate number is suspected of being used to deliver
rogue diallers, we will block traffic to that number without waiting for the
regulator to complete an investigation.

"We need to minimise the number of customers being affected as quickly
as we can, and we can't allow any more of our customers to fall victim while
the sometimes lengthy investigative process gets under way.

"But customers also need to take action to protect themselves.

"We believe a substantial proportion of dialler problems aren't fraud,
but are due to a lack of awareness from customers.

"In addition, we have decided that BT does not want a penny of the
money generated by these problems, and we will be foregoing our share in
full for everybody currently in dispute.

"BT only receives a tiny share of the money as the network provider,
so customers will still need the regulator to quickly investigate these
issues and help victims to try to obtain a full refund from the service
provider.

"We are also highlighting our service which offers free barring of
premium rate numbers for every BT customer, so if you are worried about
falling foul of the dialler problem, or have been affected in the past, you
will be able to block them in the future.

"And you can block calls to international numbers or premium rate
numbers with a removable bar, which can be lifted if you want to make a call
to any of these numbers, which costs £1.75 a month."

George Kidd, director of ICSTIS, said, "As an industry we should all
do everything possible to prevent dialler harm from happening.

"ICSTIS is looking at taking our registration process further, and
introducing some form of licensing.

"Where harm does occur we need to act fast.

"ICSTIS can bar services and set fines, but regulatory action may not
be quick enough to stop fraudsters profiting.

"Action at the network level, like BT is taking, protects customers
and builds trust in the Internet and premium charging."

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