Beware of hot sites February 10, 2002

Internet users get monthly telephone bill of ten thousand dollars!

Dubai - A large number of Arab and expatriate Internet browsers in the UAE, Oman and other Gulf countries have been duped by dubious telephone companies from the UK which lured them to pornographic sites, hijacked their modem and telephone line to make international calls to certain UK destinations. Internet Service providers from the region have received scores of complaints from customers who have incurred huge telephone bills without their knowledge.

The UK companies have also been successful in sabotaging the monitoring system introduced by the conservative Gulf Governments to block pornographic sites. The problem is related to adult sites and hackers sites, which temp customers to visit certain sites or download some free programmes. Customers of Etisalat, Batelco, Omantel, Saudi Telecom, Qatar Telecom and Kuwait Telecome are known to have incurred such huge bills without their knowledge. In one Gulf country, the telephone company has been asked to refund $50,000 bill because customers have refused to pay.

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As the customers are not willing to pay telephone bill incurred during Internet browsing, telephone connections of the victims of this sophisticated fraud have been disconnected. Since the state telephone companies did not have any alternative to prevent the cheating by overseas companies through the Internet, at least 20 international telephone numbers to the UK are blocked.

'This problem has started from September 2001 and many customers were not aware of it till they got huge telephone bills, running into more than ten thousand dollars per month. On the basis of customers complaint, we have started an investigation which revealed that while browsing some of the adult sites, international telephone calls are automatically generated from the customers telephone connection without their knowledge,' says the senior official of one of the State owned telephone companies in Gulf. All these calls are generated from the UK, and at least twenty such numbers are now blocked in each country.

In Oman, a large number of Omantel customers have been duped. Internet subscribers who visit porn websites were lured to certain sites which make their money by disconnecting net users phones and automatically reconnecting them to an Internet provider in UK. Even though the porn sites have small-type disclaimers warning that porn hungry viewers may be rerouted to an international call for a fee. As most of the customers are thrilled to visit porn sites, they don't bother to read the disclaimer terms and conditions and just click "I agree' button. One such customer got a telephone bill of RO 4,000 per month, which he refused to pay arguing that he did not make the international call to UK. Many companies have also been getting inflated telephone bills because their employees visit such sites.

In another case from Suwaiq, the customer has got a phone bill of RO 3,000 per month. All the victims are either regular visitors to porn sites or they have downloaded some programmes which automatically run their computer
These programmes hijack the modem and reroute the telephone line to expensive international numbers in the UK. The viewer software programmes disconnect consumers from their local internet service providers and reconnect them to international numbers assigned to UK.

These smart software programme silence the modem speaker and silently dial international telephone numbers to reconnect customers to the Internet through expensive long distance telephone call. Once hijacked in this fashion, consumers' modems remain connected to those international telephone numbers even when they leave the dubious and hot websites or left the Internet entirely to do world processing, or other computer work. As the modem speaker is suppressed customers cannot hear the International dialing tone. Till the customer disconnects his telephone from the Internet or switch off their computer, he will be charged international call rate.

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The sites have a disclaimer which says among other things: "Warning; By using this software your modem will idal an International long distance telephone call or a domestic premium rate telephone number. No credit card is required to access this service, you only be charged on a minute by minute basis on your telephone bill for an international long distance call or domestic premium rate call. Your phone bill will reflect charges to the terminating point on a per minute basis for the cost of the call, it says. Giving detailed phone call rates to different countries, it also says that once connected your computer modem will not terminate this internaional long distance or domestic premium billing telephone connection unless and until you stay connected for longter than thirteen minutes, or you click on Disconnect button on the dialler dialogue box.

There may be a profit arrangement between such sites and the telephone authorities in UK. The sites get their money from the telephone companies who earn more revenue through international calls. When you make an international call, a portion of the charge is given to the country on the other end. In this manner, a part of the money will come back to the host telecom companies. The hot chat sites advertised in leading Television channels also function with the same modus operandi.

So next time when you visit a porn site, read the disclaimers fully before rushing to the hot babes inside. If reason prevails over passion, you can escape from becoming yet another victim of telephone-Internet fraud.(keralamonitor.com)