Page 1 of Looking for advice re diallers & high bills?

Hi all, thanks for all your help in the past, can you help with this one? My Mrs has a mate who has just got into PCs in a big way. She has just been contacted by BT to inform her that they have noticed an abnormal usage pattern. By this they mean that she built up a bill of just short of £160.00(!!) in 2 weeks. As we live a fair way away from her we can`t check her dial up settings etc. She thinks it may have started when she tried to download some screensavers and something called incredimail(?). Anyway, I am wondering if its worth her going through OFTEL etc or if there are any other bodies / organisations she can contact for help. She is a nurse but not in a union so cannot go through that route.
Any help will be more than gratefully appreciated by me so I can pass it on to her. Thanks in advance for any replies.
ATB...F...

This item was edited on Monday, 14th April 2003, 19:50

Sounds to me like your wife`s mate has inadvertently downloaded one of those sneaky porn dialers or something similar.

If that`s what it is, it`s a very insidious piece of programming that installs itself on your computer without permission, then proceeds to dial a £1.50 per minute (etc) number either when you boot up your machine or when you try to get online.

And before you all start sn*****ing: yes, I know about this from experience. A sneaky peek at a site with mucky pics will occasionally yield one of these annoying downloads that end up on your machine before you know it.

(EDIT: that word was supposed to be what the Americans call `snickering` but the forums filter seems to not like it, as it reads it as containing a pejorative term for black people. Scun thorpe has the same problem on some `cyber nanny` type filters, I believe. ;-) )

There are several ways to find out if this is the problem. Firstly, look in the task bar (by the clock) for any unusual icons like globes etc. If there are any dodgy looking ones, right-click on them and close or exit them.

Then press CTRL+ALT+DELETE at the same time to see what programs are running on your PC. As before, look for any suspicious ones and click on `end task`.

You need to be careful when doing this, though, as some of the programs listed are normal Windows programs and may cause your PC to crash if you quit out of them. (Unfortunately I can`t give you an exact list of what needs to be running at any given time, as my knowledge of this matter really only extends to my own machine. Sorry!)

Another way that sneaky self-installing diallers show themselves up is by leaving icons on your desktop or in your Start menu or Programs menu. As before, watch for anything you don`t remember having prior to the large phone bills coming in.

To get rid of the offending dialler you need to uninstall it by going to your Start menu, selecting Control panels and double clicking on Add/remove programs. Select whatever it is you want to get rid of and then click on `add/remove`.

Once you have got rid of the spam software, it`s a good idea to do a `find files or folders` search for anything going by the name it was using. If any traces show up (or if the desktop icon or Start menu icons are still there), delete them. You may want to use SHIFT+DELETE to bypass the recycle bin and make sure the offending bits and pieces are gone for good.

As I said, this may not be the problem your wife`s friend is having but it`s one possibility so I hope this helps.

EDIT: as to any recourse to the law, I`m not sure what she can do to get her money back. Certainly get in touch with Oftel in case they can help but I`m not sure it would be easy to get the money back to be honest.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 15th April 2003, 00:15

Not sure that it`s one of the porn diallers. I`m pretty sure incredimail is an e-mail program (never used it, but seen others that have). Could it be set to check her mail every x minutes and does she have dial on demand set, ie when she open IE it automatically connects without asking her.

If she`s not on one of the surftime/anytime packages then BTs minimum connect charge is/was 5p a minute (price might have changed, so take all this with a slight pinch of salt and I`ve rounded up and down). This assumes that her PC is permanently on, and excludes any "normal" surfing connections and other phone calls she might have made.

Bill for 14 days approx £160
£160/5p = 3200 connections
3200/14 = 230 connects a day

That`s roughly 10 connections per hour - or checking mail every 5 minutes or so. If the autodisconnect isn`t set, it could also be dialling up first thing in the morning and not disconnecting for hours.

Alternatively she`s a nurse, so probably works shifts? Is she surfing a lot during the day at peak call times.

First thing she should do is un-plug her modem until she gets this sorted. Speak to BT and ask them what number has been dialled that`s resulted in the huge bill. If it`s a premium rate one, then it possibly is a porn dialler (or someone else in the family), and she should block those numbers and then invite you round for dinner/weekend away or follow the suggestions above.

If it`s her ISPs number then she needs to enable auto-disconnect, disable dial on demand, sign up for an anytime package that gives her free calls and possibly still invite you round for dinner/weekend away.

Brings back fond memories of £400 phone bills - ah those were the days!

As for Oftel - they`ll possibly be interested if it`s a sneaky dialler, but not if it`s just her ISPs number. If she`s worried about not being able to pay the bill, then she should speak to BT and see if she can pay it off in installments.

Just had a thought. If it`s a new PC then it`s probably running XP. She could use the remote assistance/desktop to allow you to access her machine remotely - save you the trip.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 15th April 2003, 04:15

Thank you very much Jon C and WRabbit. I`ll see if we can get to the bottom of this using the advice given by both in your replies.
Sneaky b***ards those diallers eh?
Thanks once again for taking the time to read and answer my query.
ATB...F...

If you find it difficult to explain to here what to do over the phone you could get her (and yourself) to download VNC, which is bit like PCAnywhere but free and then remotely look at the settings of her computer yourself.
http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/index.html

One advantage of broadband is that these dialers don`t work as broadband modems don`t in effect dial a number.

I`m very carefull about these things but even i have found one installed from somewhere. I`m not sure if a trojan virus` can install a dialer but it would be wise for her to get a good antivirus prog and maybe install zonealarm firewall, which will detect any dodgy programs wanting to run a connection to the net.
These dialers should be banned.

Incredimail isn`t `just` an e-mail program, unfortunately. It`s notorious for piggybacking dozens of spyware components, one of which could well be a premium-rate dialler of some sort. They get away with it because most people don`t bother to read the small print - they just click `I Agree` without a second thought.

Spyware doesn`t always un-install itself cleanly: often the offending component is still resident somewhere even after un-installing. A program like Ad-Aware (from http://www.lavasoft.de ) should flush out these nasties for good.

Mike

Once again fellers, thanks for taking the time to read and respond to my query. Will try the VNC thing and get her to uninstall incredimail to see how far this goes to helping her. I have Adaware but like you say, am using a network card hooked to an NTL digibox and getting broadband that way so won`t encounter the dial up scenario. Have been amazed at some of the stuff that Adaware picks up in the past. I`ll also try and get her onto AVG and ZoneAlarm.
Anybody have any views or ways and means with the OFTEL thing? I`ve already put her onto the "complaints submission" form on the site just to get the ball rolling.
Again, cheers for your time input and advice.
ATB...F...