Telus Puts A Stop To 'Modem Hijacking'

TheIonix writes "Telus, a major telco in Canada, decided to block long distance direct-dialed calls to four countries to help reduce dial-up 'modem hijacking'. The article explains: 'When the [dial-up] user downloads [certain malware programs], the downloaded file accesses software on their computer and causes the modem to dial phone numbers in foreign countries, resulting in long distance charges.' 4 countries were targeted: Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Nauru and Sao Tome. It is still possible to call to those countries with the operator assistance and the fees are waived. Now let's see if this nice idea will be followed by others."

Comments

Now to do this for SPAM

[Earl The Squirrel]

Now to figure out a way to do something very similar for SPAM!!

Re:Now to do this for SPAM

[Billy the Mountain]

Yeah, right, when you try to send out an email from Nigeria, you would have to call a transcriber and dictate the email??

"Please type most happily in capital letters."

Re:Now to do this for SPAM

[Anonymous Coward]

In Soviet Russia, you would have to call a dictator and transcribe the email.

Countries exists ?

[Anonymous Coward]

> Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Nauru and Sao Tome.

Do these countries really exists ? Never ever heard of them.

Re:Countries exists ?

[raehl]

(three ascending tones) Message 5972 - The country you are trying to reach has been disconnected.

Phew

[grub]

I'm glad Nigeria isn't being blocked, I have to contact Dr. Mbugo Mbongo to see how my wire transfer went.

Operator Assisted Modems

[Bastian227]

It is still possible to call to those countries with the operator assistance.

Operator: How may I direct your call?
Customer: Squeeechhllcshhsh
Operator: You want to be connected to Guinea-Bissau?
Customer: Squeeeeelch
Operator: One moment while I connect you.

See, it won't help. :)

Re:Operator Assisted Modems

[Kenshin]

Well, god knows the operator doesn't wanna piss off a dolphin. They have good lawyers, I hear.

Re:in sweden....

[Patrik_AKA_RedX]

Who would have known that format.com was swedish...

Re:Not really "putting a stop to it", are they?

[lightspawn]

you'd have to basically invade the country and overthrow the corrupt government if you wanted to stop them.

Well, that's certainly a nobler purpose than the last time the U.S. invaded a country. Given a choice, I'd go with that.

Re:in sweden....

[Anonymous Coward]

In fact you can download that software for free off my website in Guinea-Bissau.

Where can I get this autodialler script for linux?

[dogsbestfriend]

amazing. I never thought anything would do that on my toshiba laptop running linux. It was hard enough setting up any kind of dialling on the linmodem, if those scripts would have set up my modem for me and dialed a number, I would have gladly paid for it :)

Talk about a phone call...

[pctainto]

I am sad to say that I was caught by one of these auto-dialers about 7 years ago. I was looking for porn (in 8th grade, I think) and saw one of these "free porn" dialers. Anyway, I heard it dial and everything -- but I didn't think it was international. Anyway -- I was stupid and actually stopped looking at porn after maybe 5 minutes, and stayed on the line, browsing, for an hour. The call cost my parents $500. My mom got the bill and immediately called to complain and AT&T said it was a pornographic number, so they nailed me. Anyway, my mom complained to the company that I was just a supid kid, and they waived the fee. So, my mom, who was about to pay this $400 was so happy that she got it waived that she bought me a digital camcorder ($800) for Christmas (which was about a week away). Who said porn never pays?

Re:Talk about a phone call...

[Anonymous Coward]

"So, my mom, who was about to pay this $400 was so happy that she got it waived that she bought me a digital camcorder ($800) for Christmas"

• You make any movies of your own?

Re:Talk about a phone call...

[titzandkunt]

"...I was stupid and actually stopped looking at porn after maybe 5 minutes..."

Don't feel too stupid. Or bad.

It's not a coincidence that well-produced porn films feature some kind of "crescendo" every nine minutes (approximately).

Holding on for five minutes is pretty good for an 8th grader!

T&K.

I got away to stop that with out this idiotic idea

[Chanc_Gorkon]

Implement free highspeed internet for all of your country! Then people can't use the excuse it costs too much!

Old trick

[Cyberhwk]

This is something that has been going on for a while now. I remember this happening when I was in middle school and when my dad got wind of this trick he kept panicking thinking that I would download some malware. I never had an issue with this and the only one who was likely to do something like this was my mother. She used to want to download that purple monkey thing and it took me a couple months to convince her not to do that anymore and finally I just got sick of having to fight all the stuff she downloaded and reformated her computer. Since then she has not downloaded random things.

Re:Not really "putting a stop to it", are they?

[e9th]

I can see the headline now: "Canada Invades Sao Tome, or will just as soon as they can locate it."

Re:Not really "putting a stop to it", are they?

[thomasdelbert]

There's more than just locating it - we have to get our tank out of Afghanistan. Our airplane is tied up too.

- Thomas;

Re:CERT? CERT?? Isn't That An Antacid Tablet?

[Ironica]

Say "CERT" to someone and they'll assume you're talking about an antacid tablet.

I can't stand the rampant ignorance about common pallatives! Certs are breath mints, not antacids, you ignoramus!

I swear, people just don't even pay attention in the supermarket anymore. When will we have a serious effort to educate people about the proper uses of common products? This is how children end up in the hospital from Tums overdoses.... ;-)