900 number billing bullshit

[Voltron87]

my dial up is ten bucks a month, i have it as back up.

[Voltron87]

do you not see the difference between scamming someone with a spyware program and using someone elses internet? im not saying what im doing is legal and kosher, but thats like comparing shoplifting to contract killing.

[FouTight]

The company I work for is Cable/Internet/Telephone, so I see this a lot.

You have little recourse but to pay it, the phone company may either easily credit your account or easily dismiss you and make you pay it, either way, it will probably be a quick process.

Ask the phone company to block 900 numbers, problem solved for the future.

[IndieMatty]

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i steal my neighbors highspeed as well, and use dialup as backup when my theft isnt coming through.

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How ironic of you to complain about poetic justice.

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[Voltron87]

I've been looking at all these FTC and FCC websites and there are a bunch of rules that look like they're in my favor.

I roughly quote: Under FCC regulations a phone company cannot disconnect your regular or long distance services if you dont pay a 900 number charge. However you could be blocked from making muture call to 900 numbers if you dont pay legitimate 900 number charges.

Also, theres something somewhere about how 900 companies have to make it clear youre making a 900 call, and the user has to agree to it. Obviously I didnt agree to it.

[astroglide]

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As a general advice to you and others. Dial up sucks as it comes to security, get DSL.

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as a general advice to you, don't give general advice. there's nothing inherently secure about broadband, and it could easily be argued that it is worse by default. without a firewall, that is certainly the case. it's fast, it's always on, and it's in a known ip range.

- brute force password attacks or misc crack attempts are able to be executed at rapid speeds, improving the time to get into a less secure system by orders of magitude. furthermore, data stolen from or given to you will be done so at a much better speed.

- you are always reachable. even with a dynamic ip, yours will usually only change once a month minimum where dialup accounts are different every time you dial in.

- vulnerability scanners are most commonly run on blocks of ip addresses which are known to house broadband connections (scanning, say, the entire comcast new york ip space and that sort of thing).

broadband routers are common, but not ubiquitous. they are also not infallible. MANY people use broadband connections without them. many dialup isps offer firewalls, enforce the use of xp's own firewall, or block sensitive ingress ports related to file sharing, email/web serving, etc.

[Six_of_One]

Be aware that if you don't pay, it could screw up your credit. A friend of mine refused to pay for 1-900 calls that he didn't make, and it took years before his credit recovered.

[jakethebake]

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What is my play here?

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Get rid of dial-up.

[FouTight]

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Be aware that if you don't pay, it could screw up your credit. A friend of mine refused to pay for 1-900 calls that he didn't make, and it took years before his credit recovered.

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not to mention a strong possibility of disruption of service while in dispute.

Basically they are going to say that it was dialed from your house, and that was your agreement.

Good luck, do you have a big carrier or a local carrier? Verizon or such may be easier to work with, but a smaller company that has less customers may be more difficult to get your money back.

Look at it from the phone companies pov, they have to pay for it, and it's because of you, and you ARE responsible in some fashion, for not securing your computer well enough.

[Voltron87]

You were in the Navy, right jake? how much C4 am I going to need to blow up verizon's headquarters? I know it might be more than 80$ but its about the principle.