Unauthorized long distance call my "computer" made!

[musiclawyer]

SBC long distance charges me for 3 calls to Austria of all places, under international calls. Total was over $25. I was home at the time and no one else and I was not on the "telephone" that day. Well SBC long distance tells me that this happens to a lot to people with computers. They cleared the charges but said I should talk to internet provider. Ostensibly it could have been spyware or a malware that executed these long distance calls. Have any of you heard of sauch a thing. It give me the creeps and I don't want it to happen again.

[Wat_Tyler]

1. I had a spyware program that hijacked my dial-up and connected

to another one. I caught it first time it went off.

[Selwynn]

2. Ad-aware for the win!

http://www.lavasoft.de/

[ProdigalJunkMail]

3. yep...

for dial up (modem connected folks) it can happen with some little insidious programs that make these things happen...

theProdigal

[flyingfysh]

4. your computer is infected with spyware

Get Ad-Aware (free) from www.lavasoftusa.com, scan your computer, and remove the spyware. You will be amazed at what if finds.

Also get a good anti-virus system and a firewall. I like the ones from Symantec, but there are others also. And keep them updated.

[musiclawyer]

7. Thanks

I did ad lavasoft. Computer seems to be working better since then.

[ps1074]

5. have you surfed adult sites lately?

Some of the porn sites have this payment option. Access their site via long distance call...

[benburch]

6. Yes, some web sites do this...

You click on a link, and, on the sly, they drop your internet connection, connect to their own foreign connection, and charge you for a premium call.

These programs are called "dialers" and it is a common way for adult internet sites to collect money for their content. Usually, this is done with the knowledge and consent of the user, but sometimes (as no doubt it was in your case) a totally innocent web site link does this.

If you have a DSL or Cablemodem service, the best way to prevent this is to disconnect your phone modem line and only connect it when you want to send a FAX, dial a BBS (does anybody do that any more?) or similar.

It is also possible that you do have some malicious software on your system that is doing this, and the recommendation that others made to scan your system for malware is seconded by me!

[musiclawyer]

9. You guys are the best

thanks

[r_u_stuck2]

8. You need these

Spybot Search and Destroy

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html


Spyware blaster

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

[alvis]

10. Look into a firewall as well

www.kerio.com has a free firewall. Should catch anything trying to access the internet without your permission.