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Pennsylvania Settles Modem Hijackings

January 12, 2006
Pennsylvania consumers who have fallen prey to computer scams that led to unauthorized international long distance charges can now receive refunds or credits on their phone bills due to agreements between the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate (OCA) and three companies: USBI, Telliss and One Call Communications.

Current and former Pennsylvania customers who paid unauthorized long distance charges will be eligible to receive a credit or refund for any amounts that they paid to their local telephone companies or to USBI, One Call and Telliss directly.

The three companies are implementing this policy in Pennsylvania due to agreements with the Office of Consumer Advocate governing the handling of complaints from Pennsylvania customers who may be victims of various Internet "modem hijacking" schemes that generate unauthorized international toll charges.

According to Consumer Advocate Sonny Popowsky, the settlement is similar to a prior agreement between the OCA and Verizon under which more than 2,000 consumers have received a total of approximately $200,000 in refunds.

Modem hijacking affects some computer users who use dial-up Internet access. These scams can occur when a computer user clicks on a pop-up ad or responds to spam e-mail.

These actions can trigger a download of an automatic dialer program to the customer's computer -- which may automatically dial international long distance phone numbers without the customer's knowledge.

The charges for the calls can amount to as much as $8 per minute for lengthy and frequent calls to little-known foreign locations such as Tuvalu and the Cook Islands or to more common destinations such as the United Kingdom.

As a result, international long distance charges of hundreds or even thousands of dollars can appear on the customer's monthly phone bill.

Under the agreements with the OCA, after receiving a modem hijacking complaint directly from a customer or from the OCA, or another government agency to which the customer has complained (such as the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, the Federal Trade Commission or the Federal Communications Commission), USBI, Telliss and One Call Communications will issue a credit for 100 percent of the modem hijacking charges that appear on the customer's telephone bill, and will make no further effort to collect the charges.

The three companies will also issue refunds for prior payments of contested international toll charges that resulted from modem hijacking.

All consumers -- particularly those who use dial-up modems -- can take preventive action to better protect themselves from these scams and unexpected charges that may result.

Here are the key points to consider:

• Carefully read all the terms and conditions of any offer before downloading anything to your computer. Unless you fully understand everything you are agreeing to, do not accept the download.

• Contact a reputable software vendor about programs that block pop-up ads ("pop-up blockers"), and identify and remove the types of programs that may be associated with modem hijacking scams.

• Disconnect the telephone line to your modem when the modem is not in use.

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