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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 03:19   #1
Spiderman
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I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

Hello Friends,

I checked my landline phone bill today to notice that there were a handful of calls to 2 premium rate numbers, adding up to over £100.

Interestingly, it seems these calls were made at the same time I was on the internet which seemed very strange. Then it dawned on me.

I had been having some quirky issues with my ISP. Whenever I'd dial up to connect (yeh im still on dial up) the modem would connect, then hang up, then redial and remain connected.

I rang my ISP (who are also my phone provider) and they told me chances are it was a PRN Dialer - A premium rate number dialer.

They did some investigation, and traced the number to a company caled Opera Telecom.

Opera Telecom appears to be an actual company, but a quick search on the net indicates that others have also been scammed by them.

I rang Opera Telecom demanding to know why malicious software (which I assume was coded by Opera Telecom or one of their associates) was making calls illegally.

Their excuse was "It's probably just an error on our system - we're not sure why you are being billed".

Clearly, some tossa who has a stake in their profits has been making viruses to dial out to them and make money by deception. It is amazing that companies like this are allowed to exist. The guy on the phone told me to forward my phone bill detailing the calls made to some other guy - which I have done.

5 days and no reply. Getting pretty vexxed now.
Research has indicated that the CEO of Opera Telecom is a chap called Gary Corbett, who I intend on visiting.

A few quid to companies-house.co.uk should reveal his address to me and I will be camping outside his garden if no-one replies to me quickly.

I have norton antivirus and firewall on my pc - and still this virus got through. Spybot search and destroy showed loads of adware progs - one of which cannot be removed - called bargain buddy. Whenever I open internet explorer and it tries to access the internet (usually prompting a connection) I get a windows error saying "Bargains.exe - an error has occured" or something, and it crashes.

Does anyone know what I can do to get my money back?

P.S Some advice to others - be very careful about these types of viruses as they are very sly. It would disconnect me off the net, and dialup in silent mode so I wouldn't even know It was doing it. Also - try scanning your pc's with spybot search & destroy. An other tip is to bar outgoing premium rate numbers or put an upper limit on your landline phone bill - so they contact you, should your bill be exceptionally high.
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 03:22   #2
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Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Spiderman
I open internet explorer
There is one of your main problems.

I reckon there is little to no way to get your money back, unfortunately. The phone company will not refund any as you did in fact use the dialer, and sueing this Opera Telecom thing is going to cost you more than it will gain you.
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 03:32   #3
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Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

I think the camping outside the directors house thing is my best bet then.
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 03:36   #4
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Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

talk to ofcom, if you're in the uk.

i was under the impression that if you talk to your phone provider they could be talked in to not paying the premium rate people.
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 03:42   #5
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Arrow Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

There are even little cheap hardware things, that you can put between your modem and your line. They'll let you only dial the numbers you let them to (i.e. you ISPs). Or block all premiums lines efficiently.


Antivirus-Software will most probably don't find anything, as it's technically not a "virus" or "worm" or "trojan". Also this is some normal kind of software, and I think antivirus-people are legally not allowed to delete other peoples software (like a virusscanner couldn't uninstall Microsoft Office for you).

Spybot Search & Destroy, AdAware, Bazooka Scanner (or how was it called?) do a good job, a long with up2date virus scanners and firewalls. Don't forget Windows Updates, and get some knowledge about computers and how modems work.




In you case, I'd keep that phone bill of course and only send away copies of it, obviously. You might as well wanna try to get some EVIDENCE from your PC, i.e. that it was infected. But probably too late now, as the ad-scanners will have deletes lots of proof. Also it's not sure what it could help you.

It could help if you team up with other damaged people, very often they group together on forums and have one "collect suit" or something.



For your PC, I can only recommend re-formatting. Otherwise you won't get it REALLY clean. Unless you know all the special places where software can hide and start itself in Windows.



My old modem used to make a loud CLICK-sound whenevcer it dialed. Plus it had a speaker built in. So I could always tell when it started to connect. So now hidden dialing for me.
Also I strictly turned it off when not using the internet.

Always become suspicious!
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 03:44   #6
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Arrow Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Leshy
There is one of your main problems.
Maybe they would've refunded him all the money if he was using Opera? I mean, when the company is called like that apparenlty.


HEY, I get it now: Opera is EEEEEEEVIL.
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 03:47   #7
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Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

chances are you cant remove it because its already running. Do a ctrl-alt-del and look for it in the process list and end it.
then run the scan again, hopefully you should be able to kill it then
if you cant, then its one of those annoying ones which comes in a pair, with one resurrecting the other should it be closed.

As leshy said - using internet explorer is *probably* how you got infected in the first place. its horribly insecure. i`d strongly suggest you use an alternative browser such as Firefox or Opera ( which is not related to opera telecom btw ) though the latter has ads in the free version, while firefox doesnt, and is free.

links to them are below:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
http://www.opera.com/



another avenue to be careful on is what you run or install. stuff nowadays can come with things like this bundled into them. spyware or adware is rife on the web

on what you can do however, im not entirely sure. i`d suggest speaking with someone who knows the legal system better then i do on this matter but this company is likely to be one of many scam companies so you arent likely to get refunded and its also unlikely the phone company will do it either. i`d also wonder if the address given is current or not too - if its a scam company i wouldnt get your hopes up on meeting the people responsible

something to bear in mind - an antivirus software isnt likely to pick these things up and a firewall will do mostly sod all against it unless its a decent one since this isnt a virus ( as such ) , or a program which connects through your current internet connection.
the firewall should have asked you ( if it was decent ) if you wanted the dialler program to connect to the internet or not, since it seems to have been triggered when you went online.
After then though, the firewall would have done nothing to protect you due to the way firewalls work.

You need to do at the least, weekly sweeps of your computer with an (updated) antivirus package and adaware/spybot s&d or other decent anti spyware tools
Also common sense would be required when installing things - do you really want to click ok on every dialog box which comes up? etc

Still. Good luck to you in hunting down those responsible and getting your money back.
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 05:14   #8
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Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

I believe www.theslammer.com has some experience with this type of thing and may be able to help.
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 06:49   #9
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Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

If you moan and bitch enough the telephone company can write off some of the charges, but I doubt they'll want to.
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 07:16   #10
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Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

Hit your computer with a hammer.
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 07:46   #11
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Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Spiderman
I think the camping outside the directors house thing is my best bet then.

Id give him a good ****ing beating, just because hes a twat that deserves it
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 08:22   #12
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Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

Yah unless you are basically willing to commit criminal assault of some sort, the sort of person that does this tends to have no remorse, two kids from a broken marriage, and a history of starting many phoenix companies and conning not just you but more than likely not paying the staff that works under him about 2 months before he winds up the company.

Alas it seems that the UK is very VERY poor at spotting these practices in times and nipping them in the bud, that said though at least out important business institutions aren't as corrupt as America's.
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 09:32   #13
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Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

If you're in the UK, then there is a solicitor in Manchester who is collecting people for a class-action against BT for such cases. Also, Michael Howard managed to get compensation for one of his constituents in a similar matter, so you could try writing to your MP.
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 13:04   #14
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Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

BargainBuddy has nothing to do with this though iirc.
It's one of those programs that comes with msn plus or something similar.
I'm not sure what it actually does though.
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 13:10   #15
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Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stew
BargainBuddy has nothing to do with this though iirc.
It's one of those programs that comes with msn plus or something similar.
I'm not sure what it actually does though.
I think it comes with KaZaA. Its just an ad selector thingy
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 16:21   #16
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Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

I don't know about your ISP, but ntl have a premium rate block that you can activate for £1 a month. Perhaps you could ask them about that to prevent such cases occurring in future.
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 17:57   #17
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Exclamation Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

Set fire to his wife.
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Unread 9 Jan 2005, 19:38   #18
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Re: I've been SCAMMED! - anyone know what my options are?

use cable
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