The Scam Alert Blog

Note: I also posted this in our Virus Alert Blog as it applies to both getting a virus and getting scammed.

Yet another argument for having a functional and updated anti-virus
program running on your computer:

I spoke with someone recently (we’ll call him Jay) who says he,
admittedly, doesn’t pay enough attention to Internet security.

Jay tells me that last month he opened up his phone bill and while his
normal phone bill runs about $80 or so, this time his current charges
were over $1200. Jay says he was obviously shaken by the amount and
when looking for details saw that he was being billed for many overseas
calls. Now, Jay was pretty sure he hadn’t been making these two a.m.
calls to Indonesia so he angrily called the phone company. The phone
company checked his usage history and sure enough verified that they
were coming from his phone. Jay argued that he doesn’t know anyone in
Indonesia but that argument didn’t hold up to the phone company’s
records of these calls being made from his phone number. The phone
company made the suggestion that his computer had made those calls
without him knowing it. Jay took his computer to a friend who runs a
computer repair service and they looked into the possibility.

Well, Jay fancies himself a poker player and had been playing online for
the last six months or so. Over those six months he had played at a
number of different sites and has about broke even, which in my opinion
is doing pretty well. Internet poker sites, like many other sites,
require you download software onto your computer to play their games.
The technician looking through Jay’s computer found a “dialer” imbedded
in one of these sites’ software. Upon further investigation it was
determined that this was the piece of software making these late night
calls. The technician cleaned up the computer, installed an updated
anti-virus program, and gave Jay a quick lesson on Internet security.

That fixed Jay’s computer problem, but there was still the issue of the
outstanding phone bill. After numerous calls with the phone company
they finally agreed to adjust these virus-made long distance phone calls
off of his account. This was a step they didn’t have to take and Jay
was very thankful that they did.

Now that everything was back in order I did have to remind Jay of all
the warnings he’s gotten, from me and others, regarding Internet
security. Jay is a lot more knowledgeable on the subject now and is
more careful of what he installs on his computer.

This story is not told to tell people of the dangers of Internet
gambling. Internet gambling can be done in a relatively safe manner.
This story is told to illustrate the dangers of installing software on
your computer that you are not 100% sure is reliable and safe.