I read with interest your report on the adult website scam, where a program is downloaded and proceeds to dial the user's modem to make international calls. A friend of mine recently found such a charge on her phone bill (the second, in fact, after calling the phone company to seek information on the call; the first was low enough so as not to arouse suspicion).
My friend questioned her teen age son about the matter. Together they did some investigating and discovered that the call was actually made from a GAME site aimed at children and teenagers. Unfortunately, I cannot confirm the name of the site, as some time had passed since the teenager visited and my friend was concerned about even trying to find it and inadvertently logging on to it again.
What is interesting is that the individuals in question have AtHome cable service. However, they neglected to disconnect their modems after the service was installed and thus the call was still made. Since the modem did not have the volume turned on, the teenager had no idea it was even being used.
So some words of caution: If you are using a modem (or if you have cable or DSL with an internal modem), either disconnect it or be certain the volume is turned on so that you can hear any unusual activity. And of course, warn your children about these sites. I believe if a child is underage, the phone company WILL honor a refund, but only on the first occasion
