High phone charges
If you dial in for your Internet connection and suddenly incur dramatically high and inexplicable phone charges, it's possible that you may be victim of a scam called a 'Rogue Dialler'.
Rogue dialler's are malicious programs that change your dial up access number to an expensive premium rate number without your knowledge.
Generally the Rogue Dialler is acquired by clicking on innocent looking links which will prompt you to install a new piece of software on your computer. Usually this will be accompanied by a warning asking you to install a program with a message such as: "Do you want to download and install this program?" If you receive this message and you have no intention of downloading software, simply close that browser window. Do not click any of the buttons contained therein.
Although most dialler's will require you to select 'Yes' before they download and install themselves on to your computer, there are known cases of dialler's installing themselves without any prior warning.
They can arrive as email attachments and once the attachment is open, they will automatically install on your machine. For this reason we always recommend that you never open attachments from unidentified sources and you have your Spam Filter on.
Avoiding dialler's
- If you do not intend to call any premium rate numbers, you can contact your phone provider to request to have your phone line barred from making premium rate calls.
- Never open an email attachment unless you know what it is and trust the sender. Make sure that you have antivirus software installed on your computer to detect any viruses or worms in email attachments.
- Install an anti-spyware program to help prevent you from receiving such dialler's in the future. You can find these on many software download sites such as www.download.com. A good product to use would be a program called Adware. w
- Install firewall software so that you can detect any activity or processes running without your permission. Madasafish recommend and support the BullGuard Security Suite.
Reporting premium-rate dialler's:
If you believe you have been a victim of a premium-rate dialler, you can contact the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS), a regulatory body that monitors the premium-rate telecommunications industry. You will need to provide full details, including the premium-rate telephone number listed on your bill. Their website address to report your case is: www.icstis.org.uk. You may also want to contact your phone company to advise them of your situation.
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