[Sunday World] Provider hacks off web victims

Eircon Rip-Off
-Fraud bill forced on innocent net users

A Dublin family has become the latest victim of a massive internet fraud that is costing users a fortune.

The Walter household was shocked last week to receive a whacking telephone bill for €903 - almost half of which was clocked up on calls to destinations that they were unfamiliar with.

It was only after they contacted Eircom they discovered their computer phone link had been re-routed by hackers to dial premium numbers overseas each time they went on the internet.

"I was positively flabbergasted when I heard the news," a stunned Denton Walter reveals. "Although it is not our fault, Eircom insist we still have to pay the bill. As far as they are concerned, the calls were made from our telephone number and, as a result, we are liable for all cost. The company has sympathised with us and that's about it".

The Walters' contentious telephone bill shows that €396.14 worth of calls were unwittingly made by them via their internet access to foreign destinations.

They were to Liechtenstein, Germany, and the tiny island of Sao Tome off the cost of West Africa. Three of the most expensive calls cost €99.93, €57.12 and €52.60.

The Walter family, from Finglas, are just one group of several hundred telephone users nationwide who have fallen victim to the fraud.

The problem is becoming so great that ComReg, the communications regulator, is considering blocking automatic telephone calls to 14 countries in an attempt to those behind the con targeting Irish consumers.

Auto-dialling, fraud or modem hijacking enables a fraudster to install software with the users' knowledge and change their internet dial-up settings.

The rogue software then redirects internet access calls via hugely expensive telephone numbers to foreign locations.

The fraudsters can then claim a portion of the cost of the call, which is usually at rates of up to €5 a minute, instead of the typical charge of one to five cent.

Denton's daughter Tanya (25) says her family were going to take legal advice. "Eircom agree we did not deliberately make the calls and now we would like them to stop insisting we pay the bill" she says.

A spokesperson for Eircom said it was willing to review charges consumers had incurred through the fraud, with a view to wavering some of the costs.

He said the problem was not specific to Eircom customers and that, to date, Eircom had blocked about 16,000 telephone numbers that had been setup by fraudsters.

By Cathal O'Shea
cathal.oshea AT sundayworld DOT c o m