Premium Rate Websites?
Discussion
Last night I was told a story I find difficult to believe except that the guy is in IT and generally knows what he is talking about.
He was surfing and one of the sites he visited had a banner saying something like "What's your IQ?". He clicked on the banner and it lead to a site with quite a few different intelligence tests. He minimised the window intending to have a play later and went and did some emails. He never got to do any of the tests.
The next day he got a phonecall from BT informing him that he had been charged over £70 which had automatically been debited from his BT Openworld account. He was outraged! BT must be getting a lot of this at the moment as he was taken through the steps needed to make a formal complaint.
He says he never saw any "calls cost XXX per minute" type premium rate messages and never passed his BT Openworld account details. Regardless of the morals of this I can't actually see how it would work from a technical point of view.
I thought we only get charged for accessing the internet and it was "pay for view" after that...
Anybody know anything about this diabolical scheme?
He was surfing and one of the sites he visited had a banner saying something like "What's your IQ?". He clicked on the banner and it lead to a site with quite a few different intelligence tests. He minimised the window intending to have a play later and went and did some emails. He never got to do any of the tests.
The next day he got a phonecall from BT informing him that he had been charged over £70 which had automatically been debited from his BT Openworld account. He was outraged! BT must be getting a lot of this at the moment as he was taken through the steps needed to make a formal complaint.
He says he never saw any "calls cost XXX per minute" type premium rate messages and never passed his BT Openworld account details. Regardless of the morals of this I can't actually see how it would work from a technical point of view.
I thought we only get charged for accessing the internet and it was "pay for view" after that...
Anybody know anything about this diabolical scheme?
Plotloss said:
The only way this can work is if a downloaded piece of software is installed that drops the normal modem call and then dials to another premium rate number...
Mostly hoax...
I've heard of this too, though perhaps I'm falling for the hoax too. Some websites do try to install software without asking, but I always (I hope!) get a window that warns me, and I click 'no'.
I've heard of viruses that will dial another number and send info from your PC to some dastardly hacker in Outer Mongolia - but is that a hoax too?
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