Man wants off the hook in phone scam

Lacrosse Tribune ^ | 3-26-04 | JOE BUTTWEILER

[Keltik]

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.

[endthematrix]

Just great! Now it's called SPAM-SCAM.

[Swordmaker]

Here's another thing that Macintosh OS X computers are secure against.

[I still care]

So just closing a pop up window gets you in trouble. I hate pop ups, have a blocker on, but even then sometimes you end up with one of the nasty things.

I make it a point never, ever ever to buy anything sold from a popup. And certainly not spam.

[I still care]

Hey look at the time on your post. Is there some hidden meaning to that? :)

[endthematrix]

I should fall on the old reliable: "It's an Elitist plot, drummed up at the UN!" Hey, LOL, they are the ones who want to control the Internet!

[Montfort]

We should all adopt this principle, and they will go away. Never buy anything associated with a pop-up ad or unsolicited commercial e-mail.

[raybbr]

I use Mozilla "Firefox" for a browser. It automatically blocks pop-ups. I had been using firebird which has the same blocker for the past four months. I have not had a pop-up since I changed browsers.

[BikePacker]

Here's another thing that Macintosh OS X computers are secure against

Ohh PULLEASE.. not another arrogant Applephyte .

The reason why Macs suffer less malicious attacks is because there's no fun in coding viruses for such a minuscule "audience".

[insider_uk]

I use the Google tool bar.
It stops all popups, very effectively.

[AlbertWang]

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.''

The phone company knows this is a scam, yet they willingly participate. If they pay these charges, local telco is stupid (do you think they pay up immediately? no, I would say that they are 60 to 90 days behind, they have your money before they pay out a dime!).

[biggerten]

What's significant about 4:55:55?

[RaceBannon]

no, it does not!

I use it too, but I still get popups!

[fatidic]

Why doesn't the phone company go after the recipients of the fraudulent phone calls? They should be charged or find out who called them and charge the callers instead of victims of these scams.

[I still care]

Whoops. It's sort of silly. Here in EST, it was 5:55:55

[kenth]

Where does that minor market share elitism come from? The Mac is the John Kerry of computers.

[pageonetoo]

Ohh PULLEASE.. not another arrogant Applephyte .

The reason why Macs suffer less malicious attacks is because there's no fun...

Your statement belies the facts.... Macs have a more stable platform, and are verrrrrrry difficult to mess with... that is why they are not attacked...

Windows users are subject to a P.O.S. program that only provides dollars for Gates, and friends. It is one of the main reasons why so many folk have to constantly reboot their 'puters, because there is a lack standards and prtocols to stop the hackers!!! Windows is a poor implementation of the Mac interface (that means they tried to copy it, if you are from Rio Linda), and because of copyright infringements, cannot do a lot of the things which my Mac does!!!

You apparently are a faithful Win-machine acolyte! I am glad to be typing on my G4 Mac, and am more than happy to accept your criticisms. I get to use my computer most of the time, not wait for a reboot! My time is valuable, so I am more than happy to pay more for a machine I get to use more!

BTW, what can your win machine do that I cannot do on my Mac? Other than play a few shoot-em-up games, I can't think of anything! (Oh yeah, what were those stupid c> things all about? I've been using a mouse and graphic interface for 20 years.)

[Caipirabob]

Since I'm following up on your good advice and downloading Mozilla to check it out, I'll give you some neet links courtesy of Martin_Fierro. This site is called "Shields Up" and tests your PC for security. Mine rates as highly secure. Check it out.

"Shields Up"

Browse throught the site and you will find a section to tests major aspects of PC security. Very informative.

[Gorzaloon]

<>I>Windows users are subject to a P.O.S. program that only provides dollars for Gates, and friends.

I'm really tired of these threads. I shouldn't care, because I run Red Hat Linux. Praying that possibly someone else will buy a Mac so that the product will stay alive for a little while contradicts what I really see on my web stats. Here are the ones from the current month:

1 6539 15.25% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)

2 5071 11.82% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1

3 3981 9.28% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0)

4 2093 4.88% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98)

5 1704 3.97% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98)

6 1491 3.48% Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.0.2)

Gecko/200211 7 729 1.70% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98; Win 9x 4.90)

8 723 1.69% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0)

9 593 1.38% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 4.0)

10 534 1.25% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; FunWebProd

11 529 1.23% Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98;

en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 12 528 1.23% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; .NET CLR 1

13 523 1.22% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; Win 9x 4.90)

14 477 1.11% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98; H010818)

15 453 1.06% Mozilla/3.01 (compatible;)

[DefCon]

Google pop-up blocker works great for me.
Its the best 'free' thing I ever got. (well, almost)
I suspect you have some kind of 'adware' hiding on your system.