BT Blocked 1,000 Net Scam Lines

Dialers are commonly used by gambling and pornography sites as a way of charging people, without the need for a credit card. It is part of a drive against scams which inadvertently download software and then dials a premium rate number when users log on.

"BT is doing everything in its' power to stop this menace," said BT Group Managing Director Gavin Patterson.

Patterson added: "In fact, we are seeing that many cases are cleared up when we explain where these charges have come from, which underlines our view that there needs to be greater awareness of how these services operate," he said.

Victims in the UK have been landed with huge telephone bills. BT is trying to minimise the number of victims of the scam and has sent e-mails to all its dial-up customers, offering advice on how to avoid it.

BT said it has now dealt with 45,000 cases where customers have been victims of the premium-rate connection scam, while another 9,500 are still waiting to be resolved. BT is sending advice to its customers on how to protect PCs with all BT bills.

The scam relies on people having a dial-up internet connection and will not affect those with broadband, as long as their dial-up modem is disconnected. In some cases the dialers are installed on people's PCs by programs hidden in spam e-mail or web pop-ups.

Anyone questioning an unusually high bill will have the payment suspended by BT for six weeks.

"We have made it clear that we are not the ones profiteering from people's misfortune. In fact, we will continue to forego our share of the call revenue generated by these disputed calls," he said.

However, BT itself cannot investigate the matter and the details are forwarded to the premium rate numbers watchdog ICSTIS (Independent Committee for the Supervision of Telephone Information Services).

It wants the industry to do more and is calling for the operators who offer companies premium rate numbers in the first place to take a closer look at who they are doing business with.

Thousands of BT narrowband customers have already been tricked into downloading the dial-up software, often when trying to access pay-per-view websites. These rogue dialers then connect the user to the internet via a premium-rate telephone line.

According to BT, it can take months for an investigation to be completed.  At the end, the customer in dispute will be sent the details of the company that has charged it and can pursue their case directly with the firm.