Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2004/09/03/spain_rogue_diallers/

Porn dialler fraudsters find lucrative loophole

Legal side-step fleeces punters

By Jan Libbenga

Posted in Legal, 3rd September 2004 13:25 GMT

German site Dialerschutz (Dialler Protection) is warning internet users about a new scam from Spain that is likely to spread to other European countries.

In the past dialler vendors would secretly install trojans on users' PCs that dialled out to expensive (foreign) numbers and racked up punters' phone bills. In Germany and many other European countries, that's no longer allowed. German dialler services currently have to register with German regulatory authorities and commit to operating clean services. If customers have no knowledge of the services they use, they can’t be forced to pay.

But as usual, the scammers are trying to fool users with a new trick. Teleflate S.L. from Palma de Mallorca runs several porn sites, which can be accessed from Germany through a dialler program and a registered 09009 phone number for €30 (!) per hour. It also pops up a screen asking you for permission to enter the site, all according to the rules.

Their ploy: the company installs a small Java program that simply fills in "JA" ("yes") to an agreement about payments - often without users noticing it. Victims may have difficulty disputing the charges later, because it appears as if they made these calls voluntarily.

Dialerschutz has already informed the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) in Bonn about Teleflate. Interest group Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle Telefonmehrwertdienste (FST), which represents companies that develop paid phone services, calls the new ploy "deeply alarming". The trick, Dialerschutz says, shouldn't work on a fully-patched Windows PC. ®

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