Three months after it launched a company crackdown on rogue dialers, BT Telecommunications announced they've blocked over 1,000 telephone numbers they believe are used to con Internet surfers.
BT said October 5 that they’ve handled 45,000 customer complaints since the company crackdown began and that those led to the blocked numbers thus far with a reported 9,500 cases still to be resolved.
"BT is doing everything in its power to stop this menace," BT managing director of consumer and ventures Gavin Patterson told reporters. "We have taken the decision to block numbers suspected of being associated with dialers as soon as we are alerted to a problem.”
BT also said any money it made by way of the rogue Net dialers would be donated to ChildLine, a free 24-hour help line for children and youths in the U.K.
The company also offers customers a chance to sign for a free service banning all premium-rate numbers.
The rogue Net dialers are usually believed to be used by freelance porn site operators or music download services, with a user asked to install software to run the dialers which then automatically replace their normal Net connection with a connection charging $3.99 a minute or higher.
