ive just had a customer (work at NTL) whos phone bill was £411. its due to adult web sites being accessed via her broadband. Can any one explain how this works? just with it being broadband, you wouldnt expect it to show up on the phone bill would you? it mentions somthing about some dialler softwear- would this mean u enter your home number at some point?

It may be a form of charge against that number in order to access. I have also heard about those diallers - it kind of hijacks the line and charges via that at $$$$ amount of money.

I know there are some sites that disconnect you, and redial through premium lines!!

ok now that is strange. Has the woman got a dial up connection hooked up? As the nature of cable modems means put in really simple terms is like a massive network cable, there is no dialup on it. Its digital, so a straight connection, unlike a modem that needs to dial in to create the connection.

 

there are more technical things behind this but, that's it really sumed up quickly.

no - its broad band. but i went on icstis- they tell you what numbers are and it says this:

 

Website - adult content

These types of call involve accessing an Internet website with adult content.

 

The user must accept the terms and conditions given on the site in order to proceed. The charge for accessing the site is incurred when the user downloads and installs a small piece of computer software (often called a 'dialler') which is encoded with a preset premium rate number.

 

Once activated, the dialler will override your usual standard rate Internet connection settings. This disconnects the computer from your usual Internet service provider and connects to the adult site using the embedded premium rate number to carry the call.

 

in 80% of the cases the user doesn't know that this peice of software has been installed. It's a right feckin bitch. They way they do it is EXTREMELY miss leading!!

no - its broad band. but i went on icstis- they tell you what numbers are and it says this:

 

Website - adult content

These types of call involve accessing an Internet website with adult content.

 

The user must accept the terms and conditions given on the site in order to proceed. The charge for accessing the site is incurred when the user downloads and installs a small piece of computer software (often called a 'dialler') which is encoded with a preset premium rate number.

 

Once activated, the dialler will override your usual standard rate Internet connection settings. This disconnects the computer from your usual Internet service provider and connects to the adult site using the embedded premium rate number to carry the call.

 

Whoops!

they've still got their modem connected to the phone line

 

simple way of stopping it really - just tell them to unplug their modem from the phone line. since they've got broadband it won't affect 'em, innit.

well how do people access porn when they do want it, and when they are prepared to pay the bill?

well you can have a password and log onto a site or you can use a dialler like in this instant. but like you have a password to log onto here it's the same as with any site that has information that they want you to pay for or join etc.

tell them you shouldn't be using the services which charge via your phone line. instead go to one of the [hundreds of thousands of] sites where you get a monthly membership via credit card or something, at a fixed rate. at least you know what you're paying for, and you can always contact your credit card company should there be any problems.

so by rights, the customer must still have a dial up connection, wether its with NTL or somewhere else?

if they are using a dialler yes. BUT the problem arises is when these diallers mislead people. they disguise themselves as other things so people click yes without reading what it's going on about.

so it shouldnt put a phone charge onto ann acoount ubnless it has made a dial up connection through that line?

yes and no, because the user might have not known that they were actually doing this. It's a very grey area. But in 80% of the cases hun the user doesn't know this is happening.