Misterious Papua phone calls in telco bill

[Faustino Dina]

Hi all,
I signed for a home internet service recently with my local phone service
provider. When I check my monthly bill, it is a international call to Papua
(New Guinea?) that I didn't do. Calling to my phone service provider it says
that that call was made while I was connected to the Internet, when visiting
some xxx pages. They said that the phone company has some kind of
arrangement with such web sites therefore any visit to these paid pages are
billed to the originating phone company and the telco bills me. I never
heard something like that. I was confident the only way to bill on the web
was by using a credit card or other services like PayPal that at the end of
the chain also requires a credit card or bank account.
Anyway, the real problem is that for second month the telco is billing me
another call to Papua, and this time I'm 100% sure nobody went to any payed
web site. Telco says that just visiting once such a page, it can be making
international calls despite you are not visiting the page. So it looks like
a virus, trojan, spyware or something alike.
Do you have notice of such way of "doing bussiness"? I mean, pay per view
web sites that bill clients by using the user's service provider telephone
company?
How can I protect from such viruses? (Telco said I should format the hard
disk to be sure)

Thanks in advance

 

[GSV Three Minds in a Can]

Hi all,
I signed for a home internet service recently with my local phone service
provider. When I check my monthly bill, it is a international call to Papua
(New Guinea?) that I didn't do. Calling to my phone service provider it says
that that call was made while I was connected to the Internet, when visiting
some xxx pages. They said that the phone company has some kind of
arrangement with such web sites therefore any visit to these paid pages are
billed to the originating phone company and the telco bills me. I never
heard something like that. I was confident the only way to bill on the web
was by using a credit card or other services like PayPal that at the end of
the chain also requires a credit card or bank account.
Anyway, the real problem is that for second month the telco is billing me
another call to Papua, and this time I'm 100% sure nobody went to any payed
web site. Telco says that just visiting once such a page, it can be making
international calls despite you are not visiting the page. So it looks like
a virus, trojan, spyware or something alike.
Do you have notice of such way of "doing bussiness"? I mean, pay per view
web sites that bill clients by using the user's service provider telephone
company?
How can I protect from such viruses? (Telco said I should format the hard
disk to be sure)

Sounds like you picked up a porn dialler somehow, that's the only way
you can be billed for PNG calls, at least in this country. You need to
install & run a decent trojan finder like 'Spybot S&D' or 'Ad Aware',
both of which you can find with Google.

Blocking premium rate numbers on your phone line could be a potential
backup, but best to eliminate any problems on your PC. Formatting and
re-installing is the last resort muppet solution; In 30+ years of
computing I've never been reduced to doing that just to eliminate some
program I didn't want.

 

[Casey]

Hi all,
I signed for a home internet service recently with my local phone service
provider. When I check my monthly bill, it is a international call to Papua
(New Guinea?) that I didn't do. Calling to my phone service provider it says
that that call was made while I was connected to the Internet, when visiting
some xxx pages. They said that the phone company has some kind of
arrangement with such web sites therefore any visit to these paid pages are
billed to the originating phone company and the telco bills me. I never
heard something like that. I was confident the only way to bill on the web
was by using a credit card or other services like PayPal that at the end of
the chain also requires a credit card or bank account.
Anyway, the real problem is that for second month the telco is billing me
another call to Papua, and this time I'm 100% sure nobody went to any payed
web site. Telco says that just visiting once such a page, it can be making
international calls despite you are not visiting the page. So it looks like
a virus, trojan, spyware or something alike.
Do you have notice of such way of "doing bussiness"? I mean, pay per view
web sites that bill clients by using the user's service provider telephone
company?
How can I protect from such viruses? (Telco said I should format the hard
disk to be sure)

Thanks in advance

You can get protection from dialers by using the Host file in your
computer. Info on Host files at:

http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
http://accs-net.com/hosts/get_hosts.html

Here is a list of dialers in my Host file:

#
# Various Dialers
#
127.0.0.1 accessplugin.com
127.0.0.1 www.billbycall.com
127.0.0.1 www.bloiscom.net
127.0.0.1 www.coulomb.co.uk
127.0.0.1 crosskirk.com
127.0.0.1 www.crosskirk.de
127.0.0.1 www.crackedearth.com
127.0.0.1 www.dialeradmin.com
127.0.0.1 dialerclub.com
127.0.0.1 www.dialerfactory.com
127.0.0.1 diallerplugin.com
127.0.0.1 www.dialers2k.com
127.0.0.1 preview.dialer411.com
127.0.0.1 www.eingang69.de
127.0.0.1 www.eops.de
127.0.0.1 www.e-sexcash.com
127.0.0.1 www.freehqmovies.com
127.0.0.1 www.goindirect.com
127.0.0.1 www.goindirect.nu
127.0.0.1 www.greatplugin.com
127.0.0.1 www.hotactiondating.com
127.0.0.1 www.humorcash.com
127.0.0.1 www.humorcash.nl
127.0.0.1 www.ics900.com
127.0.0.1 www.intercheck.co.uk
127.0.0.1 ccard.ipbill.com
127.0.0.1 dload.ipbill.com
127.0.0.1 tracking.ipbill.com
127.0.0.1 econnect.libereco.net
127.0.0.1 libereco.net
127.0.0.1 www.logoplugin.com
127.0.0.1 faq.mainpean.de
127.0.0.1 voicecall.mainpean.de
127.0.0.1 www.mainpean.de
127.0.0.1 download.mediacharger.com
127.0.0.1 fast.mediacharger.com
127.0.0.1 mediacharger.com
127.0.0.1 www.mediapay.de
127.0.0.1 join.movienetworks.com
127.0.0.1 www.movienetworks.com
127.0.0.1 www.netcom.net.uk
127.0.0.1 netdialers.com
127.0.0.1 www.netdialers.com
127.0.0.1 www.netmails.com
127.0.0.1 www.plugins.com
127.0.0.1 pluginaccess.com
127.0.0.1 0190-dialer.com
127.0.0.1 online-dialer.com
127.0.0.1 connect.online-dialer.com
127.0.0.1 download1.0190-dialer.com
127.0.0.1 download2.0190-dialer.com
127.0.0.1 download1.0190-dialers.com
127.0.0.1 download2.0190-dialers.com
127.0.0.1 www.real-tens.com
127.0.0.1 help.stardialer.de
127.0.0.1 www.stardialer.de
127.0.0.1 www.teeniedialer.com
127.0.0.1 www.teenievideos.net
#

 

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

Quoth the raven JC:

If he does not use IE will a HOST file be of any use? I just
switched to Firefox but still have a very extensive HOST file,

Firefox (and all modern browsers) will observe your HOSTS file entries.

but, the best for me as showed to be PROTOWALL, it installs a
netwrok driver that will filter out IP numbers and ranges in a list
you provide to it, so using BlockList Manager to generate my "kill
file" I feel it is a must better solution then the HOST file, plus,
in case you need, you just click the traybar icon to stop
Protowall, which is a lot more bothersome to do using only a HOST
file.

Heh, I find that my HOSTS file, with just a few hundred entries, works
quite well.

My current Protowall "kill file" contains 4,080,527,713 known IP
addresses in 65132 ranges. Plus Protowall will block/protect for

Four billion entries? Isn't that overkill?

any program connected to the net, so while using P2P programs it is
excelent to block RIAA and such alike out Anyone interested in
the programs I mention, which are FREE, take a look here:
http://www.bluetack.co.uk/index.php

Well, if you need it to block stuff other than from the browser... do
you have a firewall?

 

[JC]

If he does not use IE will a HOST file be of any use? I just switched to
Firefox but still have a very extensive HOST file, but, the best for me as
showed to be PROTOWALL, it installs a netwrok driver that will filter out IP
numbers and ranges in a list you provide to it, so using BlockList Manager
to generate my "kill file" I feel it is a must better solution then the HOST
file, plus, in case you need, you just click the traybar icon to stop
Protowall, which is a lot more bothersome to do using only a HOST file.
My current Protowall "kill file" contains 4080527713 known IP addresses in
65132 ranges.
Plus Protowall will block/protect for any program connected to the net, so
while using P2P programs it is excelent to block RIAA and such alike out
Anyone interested in the programs I mention, which are FREE, take a look
here:
http://www.bluetack.co.uk/index.php


JC

 

[snailmail222(valid)000]

Hi all,
I signed for a home internet service recently with my local phone service
provider. When I check my monthly bill, it is a international call to Papua
(New Guinea?) that I didn't do. Calling to my phone service provider it says
that that call was made while I was connected to the Internet, when visiting
some xxx pages. They said that the phone company has some kind of
arrangement with such web sites therefore any visit to these paid pages are
billed to the originating phone company and the telco bills me. I never
heard something like that. I was confident the only way to bill on the web
was by using a credit card or other services like PayPal that at the end of
the chain also requires a credit card or bank account.
Anyway, the real problem is that for second month the telco is billing me
another call to Papua, and this time I'm 100% sure nobody went to any payed
web site. Telco says that just visiting once such a page, it can be making
international calls despite you are not visiting the page. So it looks like
a virus, trojan, spyware or something alike.
Do you have notice of such way of "doing bussiness"? I mean, pay per view
web sites that bill clients by using the user's service provider telephone
company?
How can I protect from such viruses? (Telco said I should format the hard
disk to be sure)

Thanks in advance

There is so many ways to protect yourself online but most dont know or
care to learn. You can e-mail and I will show you how to be safe but
not unless you want to.

Tracker

 

[Shane]

There is so many ways to protect yourself online but most dont know or
care to learn. You can e-mail and I will show you how to be safe but
not unless you want to.

There is, arsn't there!

Shane

 

[Peter Seiler]

Shane - 30.09.2004 13:52 :

There is, arsn't there!

Shane

what happens with your carriagereturn/linefeed? Depends it on your OE?
Did you configured it well? Please compaire with postings of other OE users.

(One may excuse my full quoting for once to demonstrate. Normally I
would have snipped all these unnecessary quoting lines).

 

[Shane]

There is so many ways to protect yourself online but most dont know or

what happens with your carriagereturn/linefeed? Depends it on your OE?
Did you configured it well? Please compaire with postings of other OE users.

LOL!

Peter, I'm sure you speak better English than the English.

(One may excuse my full quoting for once to demonstrate. Normally I
would have snipped all these unnecessary quoting lines).

Yes. Well I'll grant that *I* should have. The OP's section was entirely
surplus to requirements.

Shane

 

[Buffalo]

Hi all,
I signed for a home internet service recently with my local phone service
provider. When I check my monthly bill, it is a international call to Papua
(New Guinea?) that I didn't do. Calling to my phone service provider it says
that that call was made while I was connected to the Internet, when visiting
some xxx pages. They said that the phone company has some kind of
arrangement with such web sites therefore any visit to these paid pages are
billed to the originating phone company and the telco bills me. I never
heard something like that. I was confident the only way to bill on the web
was by using a credit card or other services like PayPal that at the end of
the chain also requires a credit card or bank account.
Anyway, the real problem is that for second month the telco is billing me
another call to Papua, and this time I'm 100% sure nobody went to any payed
web site. Telco says that just visiting once such a page, it can be making
international calls despite you are not visiting the page. So it looks like
a virus, trojan, spyware or something alike.
Do you have notice of such way of "doing bussiness"? I mean, pay per view
web sites that bill clients by using the user's service provider telephone
company?
How can I protect from such viruses? (Telco said I should format the hard
disk to be sure)

Thanks in advance

It sounds like you have a 'Dialer' involved.
Use of a free program like AdAware or SpyBot will probably find and
fix the problem.
I'm not sure, but I believe that a firewall, such as the free Zone
Alarm, will also prevent the 'Dialer' from calling out without your
permission.
Also look in Add-Remove to see if a dialer is mention in there. You
may be able to uninstall it.
For more info, use a search engine like Google and put "unwanted
dialer" in the search box (include the " marks).