1 900 Number Scam Ive got a legal 80 on my phone bill

[qanda 0]

I downloaded something...I haven't figured out yet, that caused me to have an extra 80 dollars added to my phone bill this month. What happened was that I didn't read the terms of services for this download and then my modem dialed up to a 900 number for the download. We called the phone company who told us this was from http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ which does this services for a lot of companies. I called the number on the website and they couldn't tell me anything about the download except reminding me that it its completely legal and that it was my fault for not reading terms of service. I read terms of service now. Someone tell me if you think that this is a scam or if you think this is perfectly legal...I want some input from the outside world. All of my friends think its a scam but maybe they're just saying that so I don't get mad. Thanks for input

Sean

[rvalkass 5]

These are also used in the UK to dial numbers costing upwards of Ł5 per minute. Regardless of what they say in the terms and conditions or whatever other documentation they have they are totally illegal, as they are charging ridiculous amounts of money and don't tell you that they will dial out. They are most certainly a scam, why would you download something that would charge you loads of money for no reason?

BT released a bit of free software a few months ago to stop this hapenning. You can download it here. I have no idea if this works in other countries or with other phone providers. However, most firewalls now protect against this, so you could look for one of those.

[selim 0]

I thought these things were legal as they do say, in very small print, in the terms and conditions that they will dial a premium number and will charge you x amount per minute. If they are illegal then I'm sure people would report them and they would be shut down and made to pay a fine which would help the government more than those who got scammed. Next time just don't download these diallers.

[BordaForx 0]

Guess what? I know what the problem is. The website, http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/, is a "spyware" company. I just figured out last year that if you have vast amounts of spyware in your computer, they randomly start calling people! Last time, I had this spyware, it kept calling people in Europe, considering I was in the U.S.A.I suggest you get rid of the spyware by donwloading these free programs: spyware search and destroy, ad-aware SE personal.Google it, you'll find it. I don't wanna give links or Xisto mods/admins will think this is an advertisement.

[wariorpk 0]

That is really annoying. Why do companies think they have the right to charge insane amounts of money to download spyware (which you do not want) onto your computer. It is completely rediculous. I do not care how legal that may be. I hope they do not make any more expensive calls to download software onto your computer.

[zyzzyvette 0]

It's pretty irritating how companies can write these long things that you're to agree to, knowing full well nobody will read it, and then hide behind the contract. It's crummy and evil, but totally legal since you agreed to the ToS (even if you didn't read it).

 

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/

 

 

Before making a 900 number call, you need to know how much the call will cost, what you will get for your money, and what will happen if you have a billing dispute.

 

The Federal Trade Commission's 900 Number Rule took the guesswork out of these calls by requiring certain information in ads and preambles for 900 number services. You also have protections under the Federal Communication Commission's own 900 Number Rule that governs the practices of telephone companies.

...

 

Exceptions to the Rule

The 900 Number Rule does not apply if you have a pre-existing contractual agreement with an information service. Be very careful about entering such an arrangement. If you do, your calls to the service and resulting bills will not be subject to the Rule's requirements.

 

The Rule also excludes calls charged to a credit card. However, the bills for such calls would be covered by the dispute resolution procedures of the Fair Credit Billing Act.

Anyway, I'd monitor your phone bill very closely and run lots of anti-spyware software for the next little while. If you absolutely can't get rid of it, you could format your hard drive I suppose. I guess you're lucky that you caught it soon, before you lost out on a lot more money.

[garbage 0]

ahh hek naa, i better never see anything like that on one of my bills, that would suck bad to see chargers on your bill, and just curios, what steps are takin or taken to get it taken care of or remoed..

[jlhaslip 4]

disable the dialer

[zak92 0]

Wow that it so unfair. Just because its legal doesn't mean that they do that. Its not justified how they can rob you off your money. Come on don't give up do something about it. As already said above they write this long *bottom* *BLEEP* and no one will read them unless you're a nerdy lawyer who just loves reading and finding loopholes. But yeah whatever not fair under my opinion.

[cangor 0]

That's legal, I guess, but I'd still say it's a total scam. We see computer programs with user agreements sooooo often that we just begin to skip through them, and it sounds like this thing you downloaded is just taking advantage of this. That doesn't mean you can't fight back in court or something, I GUESS, but it's incredibly scheming. This thing sounds really low, and I really hope you can get your money back. I'd just say, go get a lawyer if this really bothers you, because I can't stand to see people taken advantage of like that.