species8350 said:
I've just noticed that bt are offering a free utility that protects
modem users from connecting to premium rate numbers.
It doesn't list windows98se as one of the OS that will take the
utility. Has anyone tried this prog under windows98se?
I am not too happy about all the info they rquire before allowing the
download - phone no., email addy, etc. The software is marketed as
free.
Thanks
Sp
ref.
www.bt.com/btprivacyonline
Hello,
It's just a clever piece of marketing to try and generate more customers.
Similar to the way credit card companies advertise they can deal with
something that has been in the news such as "identity theft" - but adopted a
chip&pin system and kept the magnetic strip on cards so it's no more secure!
Anyone on broadband will not require the software, it is only for people
that still use a dial up connection with a 56k modem. BT should and could
have done a lot more to help protect people by using a block on the premium
rate scam numbers. It generated too much money for telecommunications
companies. They could have also educated people more about con tricks and
scams, then bundled some software to help protect people. It has been going
on for years. Recent ones are pyramid scams to get free music players which
no one will ever probably get, Nigerian scams to make people hand over
money, bogus websites and emails collecting people's details etc.
A lot of the problems are caused by home users being gullible and thinking
saying YES to downloading a program will allow them to do loads of possibly
illegal things like download music, films, pictures and software. So in a
way people only have themselves to blame. A lot of those that complained to
BBC Watchdog years ago didn't realise that they had revealed which sites
they had been going to and what their interests were - just by the very
nature of who the dialler software called ! I think a lot of them dropped
their moans and groans rather than getting bad publicity by it being
revealed what they were doing.
It will be interesting to see how the software works. It might be something
just similar to a set of commands that will put a number in place when the
computer starts and make sure it isn't overwritten and/or deleted. That
type of software is already available. People just really need to
understand that nothing is always what it appears on the Internet !
