British Telecom has recently announced two
initiatives designed to help the ongoing issue of “rogue” diallers.
Over recent years, an increasing number of
unsuspecting internet users have been duped into downloading small programmes
from web sites that take over the dial-up networking feature of the computer.
These programmes enable the user to access
particular web sites, ostensibly for free (without the need to provide credit
card information for example). However, what the user is often unaware of is
that the dial-up networking feature is re-programmed to dial a premium rate
number, the cost of which can be very high (and a proportion of the cost of
those calls goes to the web site owner). Some unsuspecting users have been
faced with telephone bills running into many thousands of pounds.
BT’s first initiative is to provide a free
piece of software that bars the computer’s modem from dialling a number that is
NOT on the user’s “pre-approved” list of numbers.
The software will be available to download
for free in May this year. We will monitor the release date and provide a
follow up in a later edition of Understand IT.
The second BT initiative is to extend its
existing monitoring and early warning system on telephone usage. BT will in
future be able to quickly identify any unusual activity on a user’s telephone,
including unusually high daily usage, calls to “suspect” numbers, when a text
or recorded voice message will be sent automatically to the user’s telephone.
ICSTIS (Independent Committee for the
Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services), the UK body responsible for policing the user of premium rate numbers, has welcomed BT’s move.
ICSTIS now has to licence all users of premium
rate telephone services and has introduced very strict terms and conditions on
their use. This follows many incidents of abuse of these services.
The following checklist will help you to distinguish
legitimate Telephone Information Service providers from those that are not:
·
There should be clear call costs
·
On-screen terms and conditions
·
Contact details for the company
·
Confirmation box showing you agree to download software
·
On-screen clock showing running total of costs
·
Automatic cut-off if cost reaches £20
·
Icon to show dialler is installed.
