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Internet pop-ups lead to jacked up phone bill


MikeHunt

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Internet pop-ups lead to jacked-up phone bill

By JOE BUTTWEILER

Jeff Reikowski is dreading the arrival of his March phone bill.

Over the past two months, he has been charged for more than $1,000 in international calls he didn't make, to a place he'd never heard of — Sao Tome.

He called the phone company to dispute the January bill. Several conversations later, about $800 in disputed charges for that month were dropped.

But he's still on the hook for more than $300, including taxes, for February calls to the same number in Sao Tome, which is the capital city of the Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, islands in the Gulf of Guinea on the west side of Africa.

Reikowski is apparently the victim of an Internet scam in which closing one of those pop-up ads actually downloads a program that captures the user's phone number and uses it to ring up very expensive calls.

"When I received my first bill I almost had a heart attack,'' said Reikowski, 37, of Holmen.

Angry about the ordeal and unwilling to pay for calls he didn't make, he wanted to publicize his plight, hoping other victims can chip in and hire an attorney to get their money back and put an end to the scam.

Reikowski won't have to go that route, though. About 30 similar complaints have been filed in the past year with the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, said Glen Loyd, public information officer.

The federal government is looking into the scam, he said Wednesday. "We have worked up a case and passed it on to the FTC, and their case is still active.''

Reikowski appears to be a victim of a practice called "modem hijacking,'' said Kim Valiquette, regional public relations manager for CenturyTel. The company provides both Internet and telephone service to Reikowski's home.

"Basically, it's a Web scam,'' she said, and not one that Internet service providers can prevent. Providing access to the Internet is like having a ramp onto a freeway, and scammers can't be prevented from driving on, she said.

Internet users need to be very careful so as not to click on the wrong item, Valiquette said. "You might download something you may not normally consent to. While the Internet is wonderful, it can also include places you don't want to go.''

She said waiving long-distance fees for victims of modem hijacking isn't as easy as it sounds.

When someone makes a phone call, it's not just the local provider that incurs costs, Valiquette said. Other companies that own lines along the way charge for their services. "We are billed for those charges and pass them on to customers.''

So when fees are waived, the company is left paying, she said.

Reikowski was billed $7.29 a minute for the calls to Sao Tome. The first charge was incurred

Jan. 18, a Sunday. Reikowski said he's pretty sure he was online that day, but not at the time indicated on his phone bill.

There were three more calls to Sao Tome on Jan. 20, each for 21 minutes, each carrying a charge of $153. He wasn't online at the time the supposed calls were made, said Reikowski.

He said he has limited his Internet use since the problem began and talked to CenturyTel about putting a block on international calls from his line.

But he's still worried that the scammers have rung up more costly calls on his account. The next bill arrives about April 8.

:wha':

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These types of scams are very tricky to navigate around, especially for novice internet users.

Sometimes, a page will even "trap you in" (using some type of post data I think, javascripts perhaps, i'm not sure, there's probably lots of ways), by not letting you use the back button and popping up a warning that you have failed to accept the download, agreement , whatever, and proceed to pop it back again and ask you the same "yes" or "no" question again, forcing some to even close their browser (windows), to escape the never ending cycle.

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and why hasn't the phone company investigated the recipient of the phonecalls?

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I hate deceptive internet ads and such! I'm glad I don't dial-up anymore. I don't even have my modem connected to a phone line.

One bad place for intrusive "applets" and pop-up windows are various "new release" mp3 websites. You really have to watch what your browser's doing on the internet these days.

;)

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Ha.... I had this happen from the exact same place. I heard the dialing and it took a minute or so for me to realise what was going on, then unhooked the line from my modem (which I had hooked up temp. when my broadband was down and forgot to unhook it). I was looking up playstation2 cheats for my son.....

I was hoping I caught it in time, but still ended up with a $12.00 charge on my bill from this place. It is very tricky indeed!

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slum goddess...um...the phone company profits from these type of calls. In fact it's one of their most profitable items(legit)...so they aren't motivated to research this type of fraud.

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thankyou MH. um, i only asked because i was in the same situation on dial-up in nyc and i demanded the phone company (nynex i think) contact the recipient--and they did.

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