Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

To be fair, what can VM do about it? If a customer is paying for their services, VM only have your word for it that they are also using chipped boxes. I doubt that VM would spend time, effort & money on getting the police involved & getting search warrents issued on the basis of a phone call.

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

I would have hoped that in that sort of case a note could be put on the system for any future engineer call outs along the lines of "check box is normal, disconnect any spare lines" or something.

Mind you, you'd have to be pretty silly to call out an engineer if you're using a dodgy box instead of a legitimate one.

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

So what proof exactly would get VM to come out..What actual proof do they actually need from someone phoning in response to these ads?:erm:

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

A major thing VM could start with is actually disconnecting all the addresses that have no contract with them that would chop a fair few of these dodgy boxes off for a start.

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

What I mean, is if the person who may well be paying for a lower service, but using a dodgy box calls for an engineer due to a problem with say the line.

Not send the engineer out specially, but a note on the account to keep an eye out for signs that there has been any fiddling with the service if he's called out for a routine problem, and a note of exactly what is meant to be in use at the address (how many STB's etc).
For example Knockoff Nigel (not just DVD's any more:p) has VM's 3 most basic services, but he's not very with it and has a dodgy box in addition to his normal one - he has a line problem that requires an engineer to be called out, but not being too bright he leaves it connected in one room with his modem (or leaves the splitter in place).
The engineer calls round, and checks the levels on the lines* and having seen the "services" note logs the discrepency, and informs control when he gets back in case either the notes he got were wrong, or there is a theft of service.

Of course if VM already do give engineers a note of the exact services it's redundant**, and I would hope that the engineers would already keep an eye open for dodgy connections to the grey box etc (in the same way meter readers are, I believe meant to note if the gas/electric meter shows any signs of being tampered with).

*Something the better engineers seem to do for all the lines anyway whenever they deal with a signal problem on one (I guess in case that change affects the other lines).

**I know in the past I've had the odd engineer out who wasn't aware that we had 3 STB's on our account when we've had to call them out, and assumed the third line was just for the cable modem.

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

So lets say a customer signs up for a basic package but swaps his box out for a dodgy one to receive all channels.
Surley VM can detect that the original box is no longer connected? It has a modem that has a mac address that will contact the servers for a IP address. If that box fails to connect over time then their should be a major clue.

Am i right?

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

Not really. What happens if someone goes away on holiday for six months and turns the STB off? Should Virgin automatically assume something dodgy is going on?

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

You are right, but that's not how a dodgy box would be connected. ;)

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Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

Well if Maggie Thatcher was still in charge, she would have sorted them out.;)

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

Let's not get too off topic please


I'm still not clear about this..Just what evidence does someone phoning VM on this new telephone number to report a dodgy illegal user have to provide for VM to be able to pursue the matter and gain a prosecution?

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

well then there would be no activity on their line then :p: He's saying there is activity on the line but not from the STB that they have on record for that one

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

Not in every case but it would back up other evidence such as a report on the phone.

I think really there is little VM can do other than change their encryption system which would be financially prohibitive.
IMHO the ads are merely to show willing to the shareholders.

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

Was meant to be a bit of a joke, poking a bit of fun...

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

So you're basically saying anyone who gets caught with a dodgy VM box would go on and rip sky off aswell....yeah ok.

Re: Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?
 

:sleep: