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Hacked Business Owner Stuck With $52k Phone Bill

ubercam writes "A Canadian business man is on the hook for a $52,000 phone bill after someone hacked into his voice mail system and found a way to dial out. The hacker racked up the charges with calls to Bulgaria. The business owner noticed an odd message coming up on his call display (Feature 36), and alerted his provider, Manitoba Telecom Services. They referred him to their fraud department, who discovered the breach. MTS said that they would reverse the charges if the hacked equipment was theirs, but in this case it was customer owned. The ironic part is that the victim's company, HUB Computer Solutions, is in the business of computer and network security. They even offer to sell, configure and secure Cisco VoIP systems. Looks as though they even couldn't manage to secure their own system, which doesn't bode well for their customers." This certainly isn't the first time someone has exploited the phone system and stuck another with the bill. Maybe it's time for the phone company to get their fraud detection and prevention services at least on par with the credit card companies'.

11 of 300 comments (clear)

  1. Re:WTF? by Spazztastic · · Score: 4, Funny

    Seriously there guys, why would Mr. HUB Computer Solutions let something as embarrassing as that hit the press?

    Perhaps he's now offering super-low-discount services and this is just an elaborate advertising campaign?

    --
    Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
  2. 1-900... by curtix7 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I hear bulgaria has the best phone sex lines confirm/deny?

    1. Re:1-900... by LandDolphin · · Score: 4, Funny

      Of course, you came from Utah.

      --
      Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
  3. Re:WTF? by Warll · · Score: 4, Funny

    So what you're saying is that his pan is somehting like this:
    1. Get hacked
    2. Tell the press
    3. ?????
    4. Profit!

  4. Yay for 4-digit pins by MobyDisk · · Score: 4, Funny

    Davison has a four-digit password on the voice mail. That doesn't stop professional hackers, said Brett Rhodes, an expert in the field who runs SME Teleresources Inc. in Winnipeg.

    I once saw a web site with a list of all 4-digit pins on it. I mean like, every single one!!!! There must be... hundreds.. no... thousands of possiblities! Keeping or distributing such a list should be illegal.

    1. Re:Yay for 4-digit pins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Incorrect PIN number. You have 9998 tries remaining.

  5. Re:Not astonishingly suprising... by he-sk · · Score: 4, Funny

    Great work! Not only is he stuck with a 50k phone bill, but now his internet bill will skyrocket as well thanks to the slashdotting of his site.

    Are you his competitor by any chance?

    --
    Free Manning, jail Obama.
  6. Or..... by Weaselmancer · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's not because Bulgaria rocks - it's because you're from Utah.

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  7. Re:Not astonishingly suprising... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    [citation needed]

    Will this do?

  8. Re:Not astonishingly suprising... by Raistlin77 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This does not really have the same meaning as the others because giving yourself a haircut is more difficult than giving another person a haircut.

    So is open heart surgery...

  9. Re:Not astonishingly suprising... by ralf1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Carpenter's house is the one with the really skinny dead chick in it.

    --
    "Would you, could you, with a goat?" Dr Seuss