My co-worked was online during lunch and paying her bills. She popped her head over the cube wall and wanted me to look at her phone bill. It was from her local carrier, SBC, but it had an international long distance carrier on it named USBI. She asked me if I could find out more about the numbers on the bill and find out who was called. I wasn’t able to find a reverse look-up that included the numbers as they were from the UK. (Tho, I could find plenty of websites to do it with a US number.) So I did a bit more research. I tried to google “slamming” with USBI and “fraud” and came up with some interesting information.
First, I’d like to flashback to earlier today when she mentioned that her computer had a virus that wouldn’t let her e-mail out of her computer and was wondering what to do about it. (After all of my computer meltdowns as of late, I wasn’t too comfortable handing out information.) I suggested trying to do a system restore to before she had the problems, and then run her Anti-Virus as well as Ad-Aware and Spybot as well.
Back to the present, I find another online forum that has a thread titled “Being charged for a call to England that you didn’t make scam alert”. Could this be the same thing? I read the thread and found a lot of surprising information about a program/virus that could wreak some nasty havoc on computers connected to a landline. It appears that this software gets installed on the computer that will dial-up to england for a “pay per view” website. More interesting, the FAQ from this software’s website says "As long as there is a phone line that can be connected to the computer, you can use the service, even if you don’t have a dial up Interned access."
I don’t want to jump to conclusions here, but I’ve got a feeling that this is the software that my co-worker has gotten on her computer. Nonetheless, I thought it’d behoove to alert my fellow dopers that this could happen to them. (I’m putting this in the pit in case it has happened to any of you too).
In many if not all jurisdictions, a nice little phone call to your telephone service provider’s customer service line disputing the charge and alleging slamming and/or computer virus/Trojan work, including the explicit statement that she never intentionally placed a telephone call to England by voice phone or by computer, will get that charge removed. If they get recalcitrant, mentioning the Public Service Commission or local equivalent seems to help.
(I did not call Nauru, regardless of what their records indicate. That one was actually fun to resolve – customer service at Bell South was actually quite willing to believe that I had not placed a call through a fly-by-night service provider that we both had to look up on the bill to make sure we were talking about the same company; we ended up joking about why anyone in his right mind might ever call Nauru from a private home in North Carolina.)
When I got high-speed cable internet access, I disconnected the dial-up modem. (It was fried, anyways.) Now my computer and my phone line have little to do with each other.
Now, resolving the $400 in calls to Germany that the guy upstairs from me made on my phone line in 1991–after physically wiring into my phone line–that was fun.
[synchronicity hijack] I had never heard of Nauru until I listened to This American Life on NPR yesterday. I wanted to look it up (fascinating story) but had no clue how to spell it, and my guesses (starting with variations of Nehru) didn’t work.
Now here’s Polycarp, talking about Nauru. Weird. Just weird.
About a year ago I had trouble with a computer virus and USBI as well. It took a few phone calls, some letters, and a lot of frustration, but I eventually got it resolved with USBI “refunding” the money to my prime carrier. Qwest wasn’t a lot of help. I had to call the USBI number listed on the bill, and they gave me the number of the group that the call was placed to. (As best as I can tell from research, USBI acts as a billing agency (pimp?) for some reputable companies, and a bunch of companies that use Trojans or other viruses to make billed phone calls.)
I wound up writing a letter to the sub-group with a copy to USBI. Outline the details of the scam with the specific statement that she did not of her own accord make a call (and the other stuff Polycarp mentions.) Threaten to contact the Minnesota District Attorney if it is not promptly cleared up, and follow through if necessary. I made use of Mike Hatch’s staff to clear up a problem with MCI/Worldcom a bunch of years ago. They are quite happy to assist constituents who are being screwed.
One more thing - Check with SBC to see if there are other unusual calls made since the billing period ended. If the virus is still active on her computer, there could be a bunch more charges. She may as well get them all in to the same complaint letter. (Hopefully SBC will take care of it all, but I wouldn’t rely on it.)
Thanks, I mentioned that to her and she’s got SBC to put the money, $74.53, in dispute for 90 days while she has to go and clear this up with USBI.
In the interim, they’ve unplugged the phoneline to the computer and her son has decided to reinstall all of the software including Windows XP. They just bought the computer last month so they’re not losing much data according to her.
Her son’s got the right idea. Mention to her to ask if he did a complete format-and-reinstall, and make sure she installs an anti-virus program, Spybot, SpywareBlaster, Ad-Aware, and either a firewall or make sure the XP firewall is enabled.
You don’t even need to refine your search that much. A Gooja News search for “USBI” and “phone bill” turns up phone-bill rip-off threads almost exclusively. (Some abuse reports of USBI-related spam in there for texture.)
I don’t think it will be hard to have these charges reversed.
I heard that too. I think it’s funny how the NPR story explicitly said something along the lines of “You’ve probably never heard about Nauru, but once you’ve heard about it, you’ll keep hearing about it.”
Forget rural - I’ve been in Sublurbia a long dang time and I’ve never had a secured phone box. As soon as my home warranty expires, I’m putting a padlock on it and taping my phone number to the box for the phone company to “request access” if they need it. Even if they fine me or cut the damn thing off once a month, I’m not leaving that open out there.
For now I simply set it up so a code is needed to make other than a local or toll free call.
Ain’t THAT the truth! I had the same WTF? moment AuntiePam did when I read Polycarp’s post. Now I might as well move there because I’ll NEVER be able to get away from it.
It’s true there’s no reverse-lookup for UK numbers in general, but the telephone regulator Icstis has one for premium-rate numbers which it regulates. And they’re finally starting to sort their act out about pulling the plug on bad apples (hey, I like that mix of metaphors )
Nothing. A home warranty refers to the home and contents thereof. The DMARC or point of demarcation identifies the transition from what they (TELCO) owns to what you own. Putting a padlock on a plastic box doesn’t get my vote for security warm and fuzzy.
yeah, in that one room hut on top of all the bat guano/phosphate! I heard that story too, inthe middle of a MI dreary day and thinking of the palm trees and such was torture. But fun…
I’m glad SBC is being good and patient about this, I hope they keep in mind that the 75.00 won’t break the phone company if they have to eat it! I swear, sometimes they act like you’re taking it out of the operator’s pocket while they sit on the phone w/ you.
