BELL Modem Hijacking

[betsy]

About two years ago (2004), we got huge long-distance bill from Bell apparently acquired online, from sites I've never heard of, "Nauru" and "Sao Tome." The amount was for $615.00.

We've also received a formal notice that our long distance phone service was officially cut-off as of this date until the bills are settled.

After talking to several Bell personnel, a technician explained that it is fraud and that they've been having numerous complaints about it. One suggested that we needed a modem that has a firewall...and conveniently said that Bell has that. So we ordered.

However, before the new modem arrived, another Bell rep was more generous with her information.

She explained to us that we have to get our hard-drive cleaned up. That even if you no longer go online (which we did), or even if we get the new modem, those long distance calls will still keep racking up unless you get the hard-drive cleaned. Unfortunately, she said, Bell does not offer the cleaning-up services for free.

We cancelled the ordered modem, breaking the contract since the information I've got from the rep who suggested it was not complete.

NOTE: I was stumbling on these nuggets of information in my bid to contest the bill. We felt that we were not responsible for the charges since those calls went randomly and without our knowledge at all! I was adamant on the phone that we were not going to pay. Btw, you could never get the same person to talk to, no matter which department you go, so I had to always repeat the whole story everytime I talked to someone.

Finally, a manager offered to reduce the amount on the bill. We stood firm. We don't owe anything.

We continuously received those final notice to pay or else we lose our phone service.

At that time, we were also going through a tough time...we were preoccupied with my husband's new business, and it was struggling. I closed down the daycare to help him. We only literally come home to sleep!

Accidentally I read an article in a newspaper about the very same thing. Consumers Advocate was fighting this thing with Bell. Apparently, this problem with Bell had been going on since the late 90's!

I contacted them, and they directed me to CRTC.

CRTC adviced me that I don't have to pay it since it is fraud....that Bell cannot remove my basic phone service nor can they even threaten me about cutting it off. She gave me an executive's number to call.

I continued to receive the standard last notice to pay though, telling you to pay or the service will cut-off.

This time I was rabid! I told them..."This is like Organized Crime! You knew about these scams all along and yet you did nothing! You opened up your clientele to be victimized...and you act as the muscle man for them to pay up with your threats! You are in bed with these crooks!"

The Executive Officer was so polite and said that Bell will send a letter to all its clients to explain where Bell stood in this issue. He told me to ignore the notices I receive in the mail. They're done automatically by computers, he explained, the staff cannot do anything about that.

I told him, "I'll wait for the letter...but no matter where Bell stands on this matter, of course you do realize that I will never pay." I never got any letter up to now.

But the monthly bills still came, which is fine. BUT, we found that they're still charging us for the long-distance service which they're officially cut-off! We checked our previous bills....lo and behold, we've been paying for services no longer rendered for about 8 months! When we called billing dept to inform them about the discrepancy, the answer was, "Too bad. We cannot correct them since we can only keep records on our computers for 3 months."

My husband kept all our bills and he himself computed and deducted the amount!

At this time I've searched the net (we went with a different company) and found that there's an on-going CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT against BELL from those who have already payed up the ridiculous amount of charges and now wanting their money back. They were apparently intimidated into paying up.

After months of the same-old with Bell and standing firm (we no longer received the notices, but they started calling us!), we got a letter stating that they've taken up the amount in dispute and put it in another account. It will be sent to a collection agency. They instructed us to pay our normal services on another account. We followed their instructions.

BUT guess what, the last bill came and said we're two months behind our bill payment (basic service). Then they followed that bill with phone calls to remind us!

Apparently they're putting the money we pay for the normal service to the account of the disputed bill. When I called billing to tell them about this, the rep said "Oh but we have no way of correcting it. It's already gone through the other account." BS!

I told him, "I don't care how you guys do it. I'm just doing my part in officially telling you that there's a discrepancy in my bill...it's not problem if you are dis-organized in your system! I better not hear any more from you guys or else! I know that there's a lclass action awsuit against Bell from people who ALREADY have paid up....I might just try to start another Class Action lawsuit, and this time it will be from people like me who are being harrassed into paying up!"

The bill was promptly corrected. But we just received a notice saying last notice before it gets to collection agency.

I emailed the law office handling the class action and was adviced with an option that I should stay firm. If Collection Agency called, I should tell them that we will not pay and have no intention of paying. If Bell wants to pursue us, they will have to sue. To tell the collection agency not to call back again.

So this is where we're at.

Oh btw, Bell was proud to announce to us approx. 6 months ago that they've finally put a block on those two sites! Whooopie! What took them so long?

Anyone had the same problems? Any input please?

[RB]

About two years ago (2004), we got huge long-distance bill from Bell apparently acquired online, from sites I've never heard of, "Nauru" and "Sao Tome." The amount was for $615.00.

We've also received a formal notice that our long distance phone service was officially cut-off as of this date until the bills are settled.

After talking to several Bell personnel, a technician explained that it is fraud and that they've been having numerous complaints about it. One suggested that we needed a modem that has a firewall...and conveniently said that Bell has that. So we ordered.

However, before the new modem arrived, another Bell rep was more generous with her information.

She explained to us that we have to get our hard-drive cleaned up. That even if you no longer go online (which we did), or even if we get the new modem, those long distance calls will still keep racking up unless you get the hard-drive cleaned. Unfortunately, she said, Bell does not offer the cleaning-up services for free.

We cancelled the ordered modem, breaking the contract since the information I've got from the rep who suggested it was not complete.

NOTE: I was stumbling on these nuggets of information in my bid to contest the bill. We felt that we were not responsible for the charges since those calls went randomly and without our knowledge at all! I was adamant on the phone that we were not going to pay. Btw, you could never get the same person to talk to, no matter which department you go, so I had to always repeat the whole story everytime I talked to someone.

Finally, a manager offered to reduce the amount on the bill. We stood firm. We don't owe anything.

We continuously received those final notice to pay or else we lose our phone service.

At that time, we were also going through a tough time...we were preoccupied with my husband's new business, and it was struggling. I closed down the daycare to help him. We only literally come home to sleep!

Accidentally I read an article in a newspaper about the very same thing. Consumers Advocate was fighting this thing with Bell. Apparently, this problem with Bell had been going on since the late 90's!

I contacted them, and they directed me to CRTC.

CRTC adviced me that I don't have to pay it since it is fraud....that Bell cannot remove my basic phone service nor can they even threaten me about cutting it off. She gave me an executive's number to call.

I continued to receive the standard last notice to pay though, telling you to pay or the service will cut-off.

This time I was rabid! I told them..."This is like Organized Crime! You knew about these scams all along and yet you did nothing! You opened up your clientele to be victimized...and you act as the muscle man for them to pay up with your threats! You are in bed with these crooks!"

The Executive Officer was so polite and said that Bell will send a letter to all its clients to explain where Bell stood in this issue. He told me to ignore the notices I receive in the mail. They're done automatically by computers, he explained, the staff cannot do anything about that.

I told him, "I'll wait for the letter...but no matter where Bell stands on this matter, of course you do realize that I will never pay." I never got any letter up to now.

But the monthly bills still came, which is fine. BUT, we found that they're still charging us for the long-distance service which they're officially cut-off! We checked our previous bills....lo and behold, we've been paying for services no longer rendered for about 8 months! When we called billing dept to inform them about the discrepancy, the answer was, "Too bad. We cannot correct them since we can only keep records on our computers for 3 months."

My husband kept all our bills and he himself computed and deducted the amount!

At this time I've searched the net (we went with a different company) and found that there's an on-going CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT against BELL from those who have already payed up the ridiculous amount of charges and now wanting their money back. They were apparently intimidated into paying up.

After months of the same-old with Bell and standing firm (we no longer received the notices, but they started calling us!), we got a letter stating that they've taken up the amount in dispute and put it in another account. It will be sent to a collection agency. They instructed us to pay our normal services on another account. We followed their instructions.

BUT guess what, the last bill came and said we're two months behind our bill payment (basic service). Then they followed that bill with phone calls to remind us!

Apparently they're putting the money we pay for the normal service to the account of the disputed bill. When I called billing to tell them about this, the rep said "Oh but we have no way of correcting it. It's already gone through the other account." BS!

I told him, "I don't care how you guys do it. I'm just doing my part in officially telling you that there's a discrepancy in my bill...it's not problem if you are dis-organized in your system! I better not hear any more from you guys or else! I know that there's a lclass action awsuit against Bell from people who ALREADY have paid up....I might just try to start another Class Action lawsuit, and this time it will be from people like me who are being harrassed into paying up!"

The bill was promptly corrected. But we just received a notice saying last notice before it gets to collection agency.

I emailed the law office handling the class action and was adviced with an option that I should stay firm. If Collection Agency called, I should tell them that we will not pay and have no intention of paying. If Bell wants to pursue us, they will have to sue. To tell the collection agency not to call back again.

So this is where we're at.

Oh btw, Bell was proud to announce to us approx. 6 months ago that they've finally put a block on those two sites! Whooopie! What took them so long?

Anyone had the same problems? Any input please?

About 2 years ago I had a bill from Bell with the Sao Tome billing - it was about $35 bucks but they took it off - I don't recall what I said to them but I wrote to them and sent a copy to Ministry of Consumer affairs to look after it. I didn't speak with the customer service folks after I realise they do not have the authority to reverse the charges.

I had a similar situation where I bought a Bell Mobility phone, and they added on Internet services without my knowledge on my kid's cell, the charge of that phone went up to $4,000 in month one and $3,000 by mid month two. I got these bill in the mail.

Bell is too big to take care of their customers.

[PocketRocket]

I can shed a bit more light on this matter.

During this time frame I was working as a customer support rep for an American long distance company.

Here's the story on those two sites.

Apparently the sites were adult internet sites.

You could only get to them by clicking a link on any of a number of other sites.

It looked like any ordinary link.

But when you clicked on it, it somehow disconnected you from your present server, and automatically re-connected you to a server in Nauro or Sao Tome, and of course subjected you to charges for a call to said server.

If you use Internet Explorer, go into the "History" and check the dates for which you were charged for calls to these countries.

If you see any "naughty" sites in the "History" section, then you know that someone in your house has been looking at some porn.

Either way, you still have a legitimate beef over this issue.

[betsy]

I can shed a bit more light on this matter.

During this time frame I was working as a customer support rep for an American long distance company.

Here's the story on those two sites.

Apparently the sites were adult internet sites.

You could only get to them by clicking a link on any of a number of other sites.

It looked like any ordinary link.

But when you clicked on it, it somehow disconnected you from your present server, and automatically re-connected you to a server in Nauro or Sao Tome, and of course subjected you to charges for a call to said server.

If you use Internet Explorer, go into the "History" and check the dates for which you were charged for calls to these countries.

If you see any "naughty" sites in the "History" section, then you know that someone in your house has been looking at some porn.

Either way, you still have a legitimate beef over this issue.

Dear RB,

Thank you. Will make a letter explaining details and send it to Consumer Affairs. I also documented all conversations with Bell and kept all correspondence/bills.

Dear PocketRocket,

I remember that around that time, we were having an unusually heavy loads of pop-ups. So I just click "X" button to close them up. We had emails of porno-sounding titles though.

No one had gone to porno sites on purpose...with that I'm sure. We have no other kids in the house other than my daycare kids and they're mostly toddlers and pre-school, besides, the computer is off limits to them, including before and after school kids.

Someone told me that clicking "X" to close some pop-ups may have actually triggered getting into those sites, for some are intentionally rigged to do just that.

[betsy]

What astound me is that Bell knew of this problem since the late 90's. And yet they went along without correcting or providing protection for their clients. It is hard to believe that Bell, with all the modern hi-tech now could not have easily blocked those particular sites. They just acted on it...if that's true...only recently.

I find Bell to be shady with its dealings. Like the way they charged us for services no longer rendered, and when informed about it, they had the gall to say "Too bad."

And the way they intentionally put our payment elsewhere other than where it's supposed to go, and tried to make us believe they couldn't do anything to correct it.

These actions are not actions by someone who's just innocently dragged by Sao Tome and Nauru. They're actions seem to suggest that yes, they're also in on it since obviously they're making money out it and yes, that means they're crooks...and we better watch our backs when dealing with them.

If I'm not mistaken, sometime in early 2001, CRTC made a ruling that Bell have the responsibility to warn and inform its clients about these frauds. No one bothered to explain to us that we needed to clean our hard-drive...not until one sympathetic rep told me about it. She was alos the one who said that it's fraud and they've been having a lot of complaints.

Bell is guilty of either being part of this scam...or at least abetting and encouraging it...or being wilfully neglectful towards their clients since they're making money out of it.

[margrace]

I can shed a bit more light on this matter.

During this time frame I was working as a customer support rep for an American long distance company.

Here's the story on those two sites.

Apparently the sites were adult internet sites.

You could only get to them by clicking a link on any of a number of other sites.

It looked like any ordinary link.

But when you clicked on it, it somehow disconnected you from your present server, and automatically re-connected you to a server in Nauro or Sao Tome, and of course subjected you to charges for a call to said server.

If you use Internet Explorer, go into the "History" and check the dates for which you were charged for calls to these countries.

If you see any "naughty" sites in the "History" section, then you know that someone in your house has been looking at some porn.

Either way, you still have a legitimate beef over this issue.

Sounds as if BEll is like Honda, until someone has the guts and takes the risk to stand up to them they think they can get away with anything. Our government should be protecting us from these Internationals but has lost the rights probably throught free trade.

Dear RB,

Thank you. Will make a letter explaining details and send it to Consumer Affairs. I also documented all conversations with Bell and kept all correspondence/bills.

Dear PocketRocket,

I remember that around that time, we were having an unusually heavy loads of pop-ups. So I just click "X" button to close them up. We had emails of porno-sounding titles though.

No one had gone to porno sites on purpose...with that I'm sure. We have no other kids in the house other than my daycare kids and they're mostly toddlers and pre-school, besides, the computer is off limits to them, including before and after school kids.

Someone told me that clicking "X" to close some pop-ups may have actually triggered getting into those sites, for some are intentionally rigged to do just that.

[betsy]

Sounds as if BEll is like Honda, until someone has the guts and takes the risk to stand up to them they think they can get away with anything.

That's what the lawyer for the class action lawsuit was saying. That people ought to stand up against companies like Bell, and do it en masse to be heard.

Remember when the media used to do an expose' or investigative reporting? How come no one is tackling this?

Can someone file criminal charges on Bell, since they're really behaving in a suspicious manner with their handling of this scam?

[Leafless]

Betsy

Maybe I am not reading you right but this as got nothing to do with Bell hijacking your modem.

You could be the one to blame by allowing unauthorized financial transactions by surfing unknown web sites and thus becoming victim to fraud.

Learn how to protect yourself.

[GostHacked]

I work in the IT. Tips from the pros.

Your PC got hijacked, not the modem. Almost impossible for someone to hijack the modem. But when they hijack your PC, it's pretty much the same thing .. your connection, and really YOU ARE

You need

Firewall - Hardware, preferably a router (alot to choose from). (firewall software on your PC is just as easy to break as any other peice of software, it does provide protection, harware would be better.)

PROTIP - if your Firewall prompts for something you do not recognize and wants to access the internet , BLOCK IT IF YOU ARE NOT SURE WHAT IT IS. Safer than sorry.

Antivirus - Scan your PC at least 2x a month. Also Norton and Sympatico is KNOWN TO HAVE ISSUES. My pal was on Sympatico and he called up Norton to find out why his AV does not work. Sympatico has something in their systems that makes Norton useless and does not work.

Antispyware - Ad-Aware, Pest patrol ect. Scan your PC at least once a week. Spyware is in my view more dangerous than viruses, they reside on your PC and look like they should be there, but are not good. Spyware can track your surfing habits and datamine other stuff on your PC and sell it off to other companies. Also that can generate alot of popups (advertisement) geared toward your surfing habits. INTRUSIVE TO SAY THE LEAST!!

Your Browser!!

Clear history, cache, cookies on a regular basis.

Know who uses your computer at what times.

!!!!!! Monitor your children who use the Internet. Kids like to download and isntall things at random. Most of the programs are not good for your PC.

Keep your Windows Updates CURRENT - Very important

Keep your AV and Antispyware software up to date as well.

Have a popup blocker installed.

Try another browser, like Opera, FireFox, Netscape, they are less likely to get hacked (mostly due to market share of the product. IE has about %85 Firefox %10 then the rest make up the last 5%.

Anything else?? I am here to help

Reading your other posts in this thread - Besty, it is not their job to filter content on the Internet, that is your job. The Internet is a big place and is very difficult to monitor everything out there. You must be carefull and aware of what goes on when you are online. Phishing and ID theft and fraud are out there on the Internet. Be aware of it. If it looks shady to you, good chance it is, err on the side of caution in every case.

[Riverwind]

Try another browser, like Opera, FireFox, Netscape, they are less likely to get hacked (mostly due to market share of the product. IE has about %85 Firefox %10 then the rest make up the last 5%.

You may need to upgrade your operating system as well. Microsoft no longer supports Windows 98 which means new viruses can appear that exploit holes in Windows 98 that will never be fixed.

[GostHacked]

Try another browser, like Opera, FireFox, Netscape, they are less likely to get hacked (mostly due to market share of the product. IE has about %85 Firefox %10 then the rest make up the last 5%.

You may need to upgrade your operating system as well. Microsoft no longer supports Windows 98 which means new viruses can appear that exploit holes in Windows 98 that will never be fixed.

The chances of a virus being specificly designed for attacking WIn 98/95 is rare. They are after the NT based platforms mostly. It CAN affect Win 98. I would not worry about using 98, I maintain a couple 98 machines that run well with little problems.

Also look into buying a Macintosh. There are a few viruses out there for Mac, but they seem to not really do any significant damage.

An unprotected PC on the Internet can contract a problem in as little as 10 minutes. (virus or spyware)

Win XP is a pretty decent OS from my perspective. My install of XP has ran flawlessly for over a year and a half. Which shocks me. For I used to need to do it every 6 months.

[RB]

Sounds as if BEll is like Honda, until someone has the guts and takes the risk to stand up to them they think they can get away with anything.

That's what the lawyer for the class action lawsuit was saying. That people ought to stand up against companies like Bell, and do it en masse to be heard.

Remember when the media used to do an expose' or investigative reporting? How come no one is tackling this?

Can someone file criminal charges on Bell, since they're really behaving in a suspicious manner with their handling of this scam?

They usually settle quickly to keep you quiet I find - thats what they did to my bills

Try cable instead of dial up internet service - save yourself these headaches.

[betsy]

I work in the IT. Tips from the pros.

Your PC got hijacked, not the modem. Almost impossible for someone to hijack the modem. But when they hijack your PC, it's pretty much the same thing .. your connection, and really YOU ARE

Anything else?? I am here to help

Reading your other posts in this thread - Besty, it is not their job to filter content on the Internet, that is your job. The Internet is a big place and is very difficult to monitor everything out there. You must be carefull and aware of what goes on when you are online. Phishing and ID theft and fraud are out there on the Internet. Be aware of it. If it looks shady to you, good chance it is, err on the side of caution in every case.

The title of the post was taken from the class action lawsuit site referring to the case against Bell.

The facts are:

Bell acknowledged they have numerous complaints. A rep acknowledged it is fraud.

A newspaper article reported that this problem had started in the late 90's. Consumer Advocate got involved because of the amount of complains they were having.

CRTC ruled sometime in 2001 that Bell had the responsibility to warn and properly advice their clients how to protect themselves. Bell did not explain or advice us what to do, except to try and sell us a new modem. It was only a rep who was sympathetic who explained that we need to clean our hard-drive. That a new modem will not solve the problem unless the hard-drive is cleaned. When I verified that information, the manager admitted that that was true.

CRTC told me it IS fraud and that I do not have to pay for it. Bell could not cut off my basic phone service on the basis of this dispute. Bell could not intimidate or threaten clients to force them to pay....which Bell did anyway, that's why there's a class-action lawsuit against them from people who already have paid and are now demanding their money back.

[betsy]

Reading your other posts in this thread - Besty, it is not their job to filter content on the Internet, that is your job. The Internet is a big place and is very difficult to monitor everything out there.

I understand that it is not their job to filter contents. But if people are complaining and Consumers Advocate got involved because of the numerous amount of complaints they're receiving....and two sites namely, "Nauru" and "Sao Tome" seemed to be the only ones being mentioned by most complainant, how hard is it for Bell to block them?

According to the Manager, they finally blocked these sites (that was about 6 months ago)...if that is true. Why did it take them this long?

We're not talking about recent incidents. We're talking at least 6 years worth of incidents!

We're talking big bucks here. One complainant alone was billed a thousand bucks. There are thousands of complainants. Just do the math how much money is involved.

Bell was, in the least, neglectful of providing protection for their clients by giving them proper information how to handle these scams...especially when thousands are being victimized.

And their shady actions in mis-directing our bill payments and billing us for services no longer rendered only convince me that they knew what is happening and that they are at least, compliant about it.

It seems like an organized crime with Bell acting the "Enforcer." And I told them so.

[betsy]

Betsy

Maybe I am not reading you right but this as got nothing to do with Bell hijacking your modem.

You could be the one to blame by allowing unauthorized financial transactions by surfing unknown web sites and thus becoming victim to fraud.

Learn how to protect yourself.

I suspect the pop-ups. I just kept clicking "X" to get rid of them...and someone said that sometimes that "X" is rigged to trigger the "transaction". We were with a server that got bought out by another server...and that's when the massive pop-ups started appearing. I don't know if that's just coincidence when the new server stepped in.

Bell had the responsibility to at least explain to us what needed to be done to correct the problem. They even neglected telling us about cleaning our hard-drive...and tried to flog a new modem on us! It's a good thing one rep told us about it when she learned we just ordered the new modem...otherwise we would have paid for a new one and still stuck with the same problem.

[betsy]

Gosthacked, Sparhawk, RB and everyone,

Thanks for the advice. Especially on the tech side. I'm still a dummy here when it comes to that.

Right now we got on high-speed broadband...and I think my husband downloads the virus protections from Rogers.

I only use my credit card rarely on a few specific sites that I have been dealing with and I never had problems with them, but my husband has just recently been doing his banking on-line.

Is there anything we should do specifically for these kinds of transactions?

[GostHacked]

Gosthacked, Sparhawk, RB and everyone,

Thanks for the advice. Especially on the tech side. I'm still a dummy here when it comes to that.

Right now we got on high-speed broadband...and I think my husband downloads the virus protections from Rogers.

I only use my credit card rarely on a few specific sites that I have been dealing with and I never had problems with them, but my husband has just recently been doing his banking on-line.

Is there anything we should do specifically for these kinds of transactions?

Did not know it ran that far back. That is horrible!

Internet banking is safe for the most part. I use it on a daily basis myself. LOVE the control I have over my finances.

And about the other post... hell yeah POPUPS can deceive you. I got hosed by a few of them.

The security risk starts with your PC connected to the Internet. Your stuff should be nice and locked down with protection. It takes some time to recognize and be familiar with the problems. I have been a PC user for 11 years and an IT Tech for 4. I still get nabbed by some crap online. So don't feel bad about getting your PC infected.

Popup

Do you want to continue? Yes or NO.

*click no*

Are you sure? Clicking NO will mean Yes

They are worded in a way to screw you. Also I have had some popups that did not give me an X to close out. It was an Internet Explorer with a border and no tool bars ect (popups are essentially mini web pages anddependant on their design can look like that) I had no where to click to close. I clicked and was dragged to another site. Alt F4 to close out without actually clicking it. GRRRR.

I understand your frustration in it for sure. I really sympathise for people who get 'owned' like this.

[Riverwind]

Is there anything we should do specifically for these kinds of transactions?

Watch out for strange e-mails that appear to come from your bank and ask you to login and provide your account information. These e-mails are called 'phishing' attacks and are used to collect personal information from unsuspecting users.

You can protect yourself by remembering that your bank will NEVER send e-mails asking you to log into your account. However, banks might send you advertising for products or services. If you have any doubts about a specific e-mail you should forward it to your bank's technical support before clicking on any links in the e-mail.