If you thought there had been outfits in or around the U.S. slipping rogue autodialers onto user computers the last few years, it looks like we have company. Ireland is preparing to crack down on rogue autodialers, with the country’s Commission for Communications Regulation publishing the moves it wants to impose to protect consumers from the programs.
The body wants Internet service providers to alert their users to the rogue autodialer problem and recommend measures the users can take to ward off the problem, as well as wanting direct dialing facilities to what the Commission calls “problem destinations” be suspended, while specific phone numbers can be unblocked at a customer’s discretion.
ComReg Commissioner Isolde Goggin said: “ComReg has a statutory duty to protect consumers,” said commissioner Isolde Goggin in a formal statement. "I am confident that the measures proposed by ComReg will help to ensure that Internet users are protected from having their dial-up settings changed without their knowledge or consent.”
The rogue dialers and their concurrent modem hijacking have become more problematic in Ireland since the start of the year, according to Irish press reports, noting that over two hundred telephone subscribers complained about rogue autodialers victimizing them for hundreds if not thousands of dollars – including one reported business subscriber who got hit with over $14,000 in such charges.
Rogue dialer victims usually don’t know they’ve been hit until they see their telephone bills with charges coming through international calls they were never aware they made. Over the past few years, a number of rogue Internet operations – adult and non-adult alike – have been known to slip the dialers into users’ computers when they pass by their sites or get hit with popup ads through which the dialers move, automatically switching the users’ Internet connections from their regular access numbers to numbers around the world.
“The continued unchecked operation of such programs will not only cause consumer hardship through excessive telephone charges but could impact on Internet use by reducing confidence in the security of networks and systems,” the Commission said.
