I've occasionally surfed the internet looking at adult websites for the past 8 years, as I'm sure a lot of terbites have and for the first time ever, I got a very nasty surprise. I just found out this morning that I had been billed for $60 for spending about 30 minutes at one particular site. Unfortunately, I have no idea what site it was. The charge came on the telephone bill as I have a dial up computer system and it occurred on Dec. 29th. I was very shocked, to say the least, because this is the first time this has happened. In order to join any adult site I have ever seen, you are always directed to a signup page where it asks for your credit card number and asks how long you want to sign up for, 3 days, a month, etc. I have never come across any site where you can click on something, accidentally or not, and you end up getting charged a certain amount per minute to your phone bill!! I didn't know this was possible. In my case, I never saw anything that gave me any clue this would happen, no fine print, etc. No nothing! The phone charge appeared as a call to Guyana!!! So I'm sure this type of website where they can bill you through your phone is probably totally illegal, but the site was probably put up in Guyana, or some place like that! Thank god it was only $60, but now I'm really scared to look at any adult websites anymore. Has this ever happened to anyone else? I wanted to warn everyone about this.
Adult websites - Beware!!!!
- Thread starter meee
- Start date
I've seen those. The fine print about long distance charges is in the EULA. You wouldn't have been charged for viewing the page if you hadn't agreed to the terms before downloading the dialer. You also have to open the app, (convenient shortcuts are automatically added to the desktop, and, I believe, the start menu. Use Uninstall Programs in the Control Panel to get rid of it. The uninstall program that comes with the exe might leave something behind.
So, bobistheowl, you're saying I have to agree to the terms before I can be charged? I didn't see any "fine print", so what is the EULA??
I think EULA stands for End User Legal Agreement. The terms are spelled out before you download the dialer. These sites give you the impression that what you are downloading is a video, rather than a long distance phone connection, typically to a location in Guyana or some South Pacific island country. You have to open the dialer app to be charged, because that's the only way it knows what your phone number is.meee said:
I was smurfin' an adult site and my anti-virus software popped up with a "malicious script" warning, then shut the browser down.
But..
Now it has hijacked my homepage, I get constant pop-up ads, and when I "Google" another search page pops up.
Any easy (optimistic, aren't I?) way to get rid of this crap?
Would any of the software mentioned above work?
But..
Now it has hijacked my homepage, I get constant pop-up ads, and when I "Google" another search page pops up.
Any easy (optimistic, aren't I?) way to get rid of this crap?
Would any of the software mentioned above work?
keep java off on your pages, make sure you set your web settings to not accept everything. there are always going to be ways around every sort of protection that can be thought up, it really comes down to surfing safe and not going to these hole in the wall sites. try running msconfig and make sure you don't have crap you don't want starting up when you boot up.
Most times I just look at free safe sites (sites I've gone to many times before) that offer free daily pictures. You know the ones that have a description, you click on it, which leads you to the home page of one of the zillions of adult sites that have free sample photos right there on the homepage and you can click on any of them to bring them up to full size. I'm wondering, is there any way you can be charged by one of these "dialer" sites just by going to their homepage and not clicking on anything there, except as stated to bring a photo up to fullsize?
W
WhOiSyOdAdDy?
this is a common thing, these dialing programs have been around for years..kara said:
the easiest way to protect yourself from unwanted long distance charges... do not connect a phone line to your computer... come to think of it, I have not had a modem installed in my computer for about 5 years
