Premium rate dialer advice

25-03-2004, 13:35

Premium rate dialer advice

I have decided to write this info/guide for the site as a few members have been unfortunate enough to get these programs on their computers and have been landed with huge phone bills.

Premium rate dialers or porn dialers as they are often known are small programs (usually standalone .exe files) that are downloaded to your computer from the internet. These nasty little apps are usually found on pornographic web sites and wares sites. They normally hide in the windows folders and often create a shortcut at the top of your start menu and in the startup folders. There are generally two types of dialers. The first is a standalone dialer and when run will disconnect your normal modem connection and then redial a premium rate number. The second more nasty type will change the phone number in your dial up networking settings. The next time you connect to the net you will in fact be dialing a premium rate number. This can be hard to spot unless you speak DTMFÃ¢â‚¬Â¦

Keeping these nasty little programs out of your pc is easy. If you are using the internet on your pc then it is VERY important that you protect your system. You would not dream of leaving your house with the front door open and big sign above the door saying Ã¢â‚¬Å“ please burgle me Ã¢â‚¬Å“ but that is what you do if you go online without any protection. There are many programs that can help stop these horrible little programs getting into your computer. One is called spyware blaster and can be downloaded from www.spywareblaster.org This program will stop the active x plug-ins that are frequently used to download dialers from installing into the pc. A list of programs for security your pc system can be found here - http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=6152 A guide for keeping your computer healthy can be found here - http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=8158

If you have fallen prey to a dialer please donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t blame your phone company or ISP ! They cant tell the difference between the pc dialing a premium rate number and a user. If you have a broadband service and donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t use the modem then unplug it. If you use the modem for sending faxes then I recommend that you ask your telephone company to bar premium rate numbers as an extra safety precaution. Information on the legality of these programs and your rights as a consumer can be found on the web links bellow.

http://www.icstis.org.uk/icstis2002/default.asp

http://www.icstis.org/icstis2002/default.asp?Node=67

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/

If you need any further information or assistance please donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t hesitate to post.

Jon M · 25-03-2004, 13:49

Funny you should mention this, I had a luser bring in his home PC this week.. it had over 600 entries in the "run" registry area for a dialler.. which clogged his machine so badly that you couldn't open task manager because of the lack of memory.

It's already listed in one of the forum links that Stu gave.. but AdAware got rid of the dialler as soon as I did a sweep, worth using that one too.

paulyoung666 · 25-03-2004, 17:10

good advice as usual stu

**Jefferson T** · 25-03-2004, 17:14

Good stuff.

Just hope my client's don't read it - as I get paid to sort their pc out

Pritch · 25-03-2004, 17:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuartbe

Premium rate dialer advice
This can be hard to spot unless you speak DTMFÃ¢â‚¬Â¦

You mean you don't?

Good advice there, on a fairly common problem.

Avatar · 25-03-2004, 17:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pritch

You mean you don't?

Good advice there, on a fairly common problem.

knowing stu he probably does.

beeEeeEEEeeep Squuuuuuuaaaawwwwwwwk bep bep beep BEEEEEp SqAuAuAuAuAuAwK...i can just see it now

25-03-2004, 22:14

LOL - Cant speak DTMF I am still learning

Pritch · 25-03-2004, 22:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuartbe

LOL - Cant speak DTMF I am still learning

Shall we just say that I really should get out more and leave it at that?

25-03-2004, 22:58

Nope... I like it in front of the computer

**Stuart C** · 26-03-2004, 00:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pritch

Shall we just say that I really should get out more and leave it at that?

So, Pritch, do you speak DTMF? Would bring a whole new meaning to Voice Dialling..

carlingman · 26-03-2004, 00:22

Another top posting Stu.

How do you do it all then, hold down a job, Mod here, Post stuff like that, yet still managing to talk to Smegs and still carry 9 balls around.

carthage · 26-03-2004, 14:07

thanks for the advice friend

Pritch · 26-03-2004, 21:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by scastle

So, Pritch, do you speak DTMF? Would bring a whole new meaning to Voice Dialling..

Speak? No.

Understanding is a different matter.

dragon · 22-12-2004, 22:25

Can i just add that if you have broadband then unplug your dail-up modem from the phone line that way should you get a dialer invade your pc it wont be able dail anything so at least you won't be landed with a huge bill from that...

wander what one of these 'dailers' would do on my desktop i dont have a modem for it to dail.

injuneer · 18-02-2005, 17:36

This is not good news for phone users. BT abandons scheme to block rogue diallers.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02...ogue_diallers/