Rochdale Campaigner against Costly Computer Fraud

Date published: 17/03/2005

Efforts by British Telecom to curb an internet scam that may be costing some local computer users hundreds of pounds have been welcomed by the Rochdale Euro-MP who campaigned against the fraud.

Two months ago, Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies highlighted the problems of a constituent, whose computer repeatedly dialled a number on the South Pacific island of Tuvalu, running up a bill of over £1500.

Rogue programmes on computers can silently disconnect a computer from it's normal internet connection call and instead dial a premium rate number costing up to £2.18 per minute. People are still able to surf the internet and victims of the scam often do not realise what is going on until their next phone bill arrives.

The fraudsters persuade people to download the fraudulent dialling programmes by hiding them in other software or in spam. Security flaws in computers may be exploited to install the software secretly. In January Mr Davies contacted the main Internet Service Providers and asked what anti-fraud measures they were taking to prevent this scam.

Now BT has announced two new initiatives to help prevent their customers falling foul of the fraudsters. From May BT dial-up users will be able to download free software to stop their computer using numbers not on a pre-approved list.

BT will also introduce an early warning system to alert customers if there is any unusual activity on their phone bills.  If a bill rises substantially above its usual daily average, or if a call is made to a suspect number, a text or voice alert will be sent to the user's landline phone.

Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies has welcomed the action by BT and is urging other Internet Service Providers to follow this example.

He said: "BT has at last responded to customers who have been faced with massive phones bills because of these unscrupulous scams.  I hope that other ISPs will urgently review their own anti-fraud systems. "The BT measures will not come into force until May and until then computer users should take extra care when using a dial-up internet connection," he
added.

Phone line regulator Icstis said it received 45,000 complaints in recent months about dial-up connections diverting to premium rate numbers without the user's knowledge. Direct dial phone calls from Ireland to 13 other countries, including Tuvalu, have been blocked because of internet fraud. Anyone wanting to make a legitimate call to one of these countries must make a special request.